Fiscal Year 2024 Congressional Justification March 2023

Fiscal Year 2024

Congressional Justification

March 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW ...................................................................................................................................... 3

FY 2024 BUDGET REQUEST ........................................................................................................ 8

JUSTIFICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE INCREASES ............................................................ 9

JUSTIFICATION OF PROGRAM CHANGES ........................................................................... 10

SPECIAL INITIATIVES .............................................................................................................. 13

OFFICE OF CHALLENGE PROGRAMS ................................................................................... 20

OFFICE OF DIGITAL HUMANITIES ........................................................................................ 23

DIVISION OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS ................................................................................ 27

OFFICE OF FEDERAL/STATE PARTNERSHIP ...................................................................... 33

DIVISION OF PRESERVATION AND ACCESS ...................................................................... 38

DIVISION OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS ......................................................................................... 45

DIVISION OF RESEARCH PROGRAMS .................................................................................. 50

ADMINISTRATION .................................................................................................................... 56

BUDGET ADDENDUM – NEH INSPECTOR GENERAL BUDGET ..................................... 62

OVERVIEW

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) serves the American public by promoting

advanced research, deeply informed teaching in schools and communities, lifelong learning, and

the preservation of cultural collections. NEH is the only federal agency dedicated to funding the

humanities, which include history, philosophy, literature, language, ethics, archaeology, political

theory, jurisprudence, comparative religion, and the humanistic social sciences.

NEH supports the fundamental building blocks of American civil society, helping us to examine

the human condition, understand our cultural heritage, foster mutual respect for diverse beliefs and

cultures, develop media and information literacy, and promote civics education. Since its founding

in 1965, NEH has awarded nearly $6 billion in grants to museums, historic sites, colleges,

universities, K–12 teaching, libraries, public television and radio stations, research institutions,

independent scholars, and state and jurisdictional humanities councils nationwide—providing a

critical lifeline to the nation’s cultural and educational sectors and sustaining the United States’

role as a global leader in the humanities.

Now—as our nation grapples with existential threats to our democracy, the persistent scourge of

systemic racism, and the ongoing climate crisis—the humanities are more vital than ever. NEH-

supported projects bring the past into sharper focus, thereby bringing about, as its founding

legislation affirms, “a better analysis of the present and a better view of the future.”

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Budget provides $211 million for NEH. This funding includes:

• $78.25 million for NEH’s grant programs in support of projects in the humanities and $66

million in awards to NEH’s partners in each of the 56 states and jurisdictions.

• $6.95 million for American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future, NEH’s

special initiative that leverages the humanities to strengthen our democracy, advance equity

for all, and address our changing climate.

• $17.8 million in federal matching funds, including funding for NEH's Challenge grant

programs to help stimulate and match nonfederal donations in support of cultural and

educational institutions as well as incentives to garner applications from underserved

communities.

• $42 million for salaries and expenses needed to operate the agency in an efficient and

effective manner, including to expand NEH’s new Offices of Data and Evaluation;

Outreach; and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA); and to continue the

agency’s response to Executive Orders aimed at (1) removing key barriers to full and equal

participation in the agency’s programs and operations; (2) advancing DEIA within the

agency’s workforce; and (3) prioritizing information technology, cybersecurity, and data.

Enhanced Programmatic and Administrative Priorities in FY 2024

In FY 2024, NEH will continue the core work of its existing grant programs while supporting

programs, offices, and policies that strengthen our democracy, advance equity for underserved

communities, and address our changing climate. The following are examples of NEH’s plans for

FY 2024, which are described in detail in the individual division, office, and program sections of

this justification:

Strengthening Our Democracy

• NEH’s marquee special initiative, American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present,

and Future, which invests in projects that (1) support civics education, including

Americans’ knowledge of the country’s democratic traditions and constitutional principles;

(2) foster civic engagement and media and information literacy; and (3) examine threats to

America’s democracy.

• NEH’s A More Perfect Union initiative, which prepares the American people for the 250th

anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 through projects such

as NEH’s partnership with National History Day (NHD), a nationwide program that

promotes historical research among middle and high school students.

• United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture, a nationwide program announced at the

2022 White House “United We Stand” Summit that supports humanities-based

programming in the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils to combat hate-

motivated violence and promote civic engagement, social cohesion, and cross-cultural

understanding.

• A new program in NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities (ODH) that supports humanistic

research into the relationship between technology and society, including the implications of

disinformation on the democratic process.

• The launch of a National Digital Broadcasting Program (NDBP) to digitize the nation’s

audiovisual broadcasting heritage and the continuation of the National Digital Newspaper

Program (NDNP), a partnership with the Library of Congress to create a national digital

repository of historical American newspapers in all 56 states and jurisdictions.

• Programs in NEH’s Division of Research Programs that support advanced research into the

core principles of democracy and expand access to humanities scholarship for the American

public and international audiences. Past NEH awards include support for scholarly editions

of the papers of Presidents and political figures such as George Washington, Abraham

Lincoln, Jane Addams, and Martin Luther King Jr.; fellowships to individuals writing books

on the origins and foundations of our democracy and civil society as well as threats to our

democratic process; and Public Scholars grants to authors such as Tiya Miles for All That

She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, a 2021 National

Book Award-winner that traces a single object handed down through three generations of

Black women in a meditation on people who are left out of the archives of history.

• Programs designed by the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils that engage

audiences of all ages in reflection and discussion on the nation’s founding and its complex

history; the core principles of a constitutional government; and the rights and

responsibilities of citizens in a democracy.

Advancing Equity for Underserved Communities

• Support for programs and projects that are tailored to building capacity, expanding access

and inclusivity, and amplifying untold stories of historically underserved groups through

American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future, NEH’s special initiative.

• The expansion of (1) NEH’s Office of Data and Evaluation, a newly created office

highlighted in NEH’s Equity Action Plan focused on building a robust data collection

system to analyze the effectiveness of NEH programs and policies and the extent to which

they advance equity and support for communities and institutions that have been

historically underserved by NEH, such as Tribal Nations, Historically Black Colleges and

Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribal Colleges and

Universities (TCUs), veterans, community colleges, and others; (2) NEH’s Office of

Outreach, a newly created office highlighted in NEH’s Equity Action Plan focused on

increasing the agency’s engagement with underserved communities and institutions; and (3)

NEH’s Chief Diversity Officer and Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and

Accessibility, a newly created office highlighted in NEH’s DEIA Strategic Plan focused on

recruiting and retaining a workforce that draws on the full diversity of the nation.

• A partnership with the Department of the Interior on the Federal Indian Boarding School

Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian

boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and

shedding light on the traumas of the past.

• Programs in NEH’s Division of Public Programs that support documentary films, museum

exhibitions, and discussion programs that engage public audiences of all ages in serious

questions about history, culture, American democracy, and efforts to build a more just and

equitable society. Past NEH awards include support for Crip Camp: A Disability

Revolution, a 2021 Academy Award-nominated documentary that sparked a nationwide

conversation about the history and importance of the disability rights movement in the

United States; Mr. SOUL!, a 2022 Peabody Award-winning documentary about the first

nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television; Asian Americans, a 2021

Peabody Award-winning film series that explores the history of identity, contributions, and

challenges experienced by Asian Americans in the United States; “The Atlas of Drowned

Towns,” a public history project at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, that explores the

histories of the dozens of communities in the American West inundated by dam

construction in the 20th century; and Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry

Matters Today, a discussion program by Library of America of New York, New York, that

employed the African American poetic tradition to help illuminate the social, cultural, and

political history of the United States.

• A partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to document thousands of

endangered languages all over the world—including hundreds of Native American

languages—through (1) a program in NEH’s Division of Research Programs that supports

individual scholars in the fields of linguistics, linguistic anthropology, or sociolinguistics

who seek to record and archive endangered languages before they become extinct; and (2) a

program in NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access that supports the creation of tools

such as bilingual dictionaries, grammars, and text collections that document languages

threatened with extinction. Past NEH awards include support for the Standing Rock Sioux

Tribe to construct an interactive and fully searchable digital archive of historical recordings

and texts made in fluent Western Dakota and Lakota, two dialects of the Indigenous

language of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

• A capacity-building program with the National Museum of African American History and

Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C., for HBCU museums and archives that

emphasizes mentorship for the next generation of African American professionals in the

cultural sector.

• Programs in NEH’s Divisions of Education Programs and Research Programs that support

research opportunities and the teaching and study of the humanities in Native American and

Indigenous institutions, HBCUs, HSIs, community colleges, rural colleges and universities,

schools with a majority minority-undergraduate enrollment, and schools with significant

numbers of first-generation students. Past NEH awards include support for faculty at

Manchester Community College in Manchester, Connecticut, to develop a new, low-cost

reader for art history classrooms focused on the art, culture, and historical perspectives of

traditionally marginalized communities and at Diné College in Navajo Nation to develop an

art history program on Navajo art and artists.

• A program in NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access that ensures the broader public

can more easily find and make use of cultural heritage collections at libraries, archives,

museums, and historical organizations across the country. Past NEH awards include support

for the expansion of a digital, bilingual archive of 20th-century Latin American and Latino

Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in Texas and for “Listening to War: Wisconsin’s

Wartime Oral Histories,” a digital collection of first-person accounts of veterans and

civilians in Wisconsin who served in the 20th century.

• Programs in NEH’s Division of Research Programs that support scholars in racial and

ethnic studies to uncover new perspectives on race in the United States. Past NEH awards

include support for W. Caleb McDaniel to write Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of

Slavery and Restitution in America, a 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning work that examined how

a 19th-century freedwoman survived kidnapping and re-enslavement to successfully sue her

captor.

• A special funding level in NEH’s Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Program

for federally recognized Native American tribal governments and Native Hawaiian

organizations, HBCUs, HSIs, TCUs, community colleges, and other institutions historically

underserved by NEH. Past NEH awards include support to Pellissippi State Community

College in Knox County, Tennessee, to create a new Appalachian Heritage Center, a

campus library that will serve as a repository for regional literature, history, and folklore.

• In-person and virtual humanities programs designed by the 56 state and jurisdictional

humanities councils to reach all Americans, including people who are incarcerated.

Addressing a Changing Climate

• Support for programs and projects through American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past,

Present, and Future, NEH’s special initiative, that (1) incorporate resilience and

sustainability in the nation’s cultural and educational sectors and (2) promote robust

humanities research into the cultural and historical roots of climate change.

• Programs in NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access that (1) build cultural and

community resilience in the face of natural disasters and public health crises, especially

among disadvantaged communities; (2) encourage sustainable, energy-conscious strategies

to prolong the life of cultural heritage collections; and (3) support under-resourced

collecting organizations, such as small and mid-sized libraries, archives, museums, and

historical organizations. Past NEH awards include support for the Museum of the Aleutians

in Unalaska, Alaska, to implement an environmental monitoring program for archaeological

and ethnographic collections and for Xavier University of Louisiana, a New Orleans-based

HBCU whose holdings include the Charles F. Heartman Manuscripts of Slavery Collection,

to conduct a preservation-needs assessment designed to help the university reduce the

impact of future hurricanes and high humidity levels.

• A new program in NEH’s Office of Challenge Programs that enables cultural

organizations—such as museums, archives, and libraries—to develop strategic climate

action plans to prepare for and respond to existential threats posed by natural disasters.

• A special encouragement for research in the environmental humanities through fellowships

funded by NEH’s Division of Research Programs. Past NEH awards include support for

independent scholar Sarah Dry to write Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists

Who Unraveled the Mysteries of Our Oceans, Atmosphere, and Ice Sheets and Made the

Planet Whole, which uses the history of science, earth sciences, and biography to tell the

stories of the pioneering scientists at the forefront of climate science.

• A national, humanities-based convening on the human impacts of climate change in

partnership with the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils and supported through

American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future.

• Technical assistance and support for cultural and educational institutions affected by severe

weather events through NEH’s network of 56 state and jurisdictional councils. Past NEH

awards include emergency supplemental funding in 2022 to New Mexico Humanities

Council to conduct a disaster assessment on the damage to cultural organizations from the

Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon wildfires in northern New Mexico and to Kentucky Humanities

to support cultural organizations affected by severe flooding in the Appalachian region of

eastern Kentucky.

FY 2024 BUDGET REQUEST

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

($ in thousands)

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Special Initiatives

$5,052

$7,000

$6,950

($50)

Digital Humanities

$5,500

$6,250

$6,050

($200)

Education Programs

$13,500

$15,400

$14,800

($600)

Federal/State Partnership

$54,348

$65,000

$66,000

$1,000

Preservation and Access

$19,500

$22,500

$22,000

($500)

Public Programs

$14,000

$15,800

$15,400

($400)

Research Programs

$15,000

$17,500

Program Development

$2,500

$2,800

$2,500

($300)

Subtotal

$129,400

$152,250

$151,200

($1,050)

Challenge Programs

$13,600

$15,750

$14,800

($950)

Treasury Matching Funds

$2,000

$3,000

Subtotal

$15,600

$18,750

$17,800

($950)

Administration

$35,000

$36,000

$42,000

$6,000

Total

$180,000

$207,000

$211,000

$4,000

JUSTIFICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE INCREASES

FY 2024 OMB Submission

($ in thousands)

Positions

FTE

Amount

Pricing Change #1 -

2024 COLA Increase

$ 935

Pricing Change #2 -

Annualization of Prior

Year Pay Increase

$ 285

Pricing Change #3 -

Federal Employee

Retirement System

Adjustment

$ 200

Pricing Change #4 -

Annualization of FY

2023 Hiring

15.5

$ 2,479

Pricing Change #5 -

GSA Rent Increase

$ 248

Pricing Change #6 -

FPS Fee Adjustment

$ 8

Total Pricing

Changes -

Administration

15.5

$ 4,155

Pricing Change #1 – 2024 Cost-Of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Increase: This pricing change

reflects the costs to support the 5.2% pay adjustment in FY 2024. It includes three quarters of

funding in Calendar Year 2024.

Pricing Change #2 – Annualization of Prior Year COLA Increase: This pricing change reflects

one quarter of funding in Calendar Year 2023 for the 4.6% pay adjustment enacted in FY 2023.

Pricing Change #3 – Federal Employee Retirement System Adjustment: The Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-11 includes a rate for employing agency contributions

for regular retirement groups. This pricing change reflects the increase to the agency for retirement

contributions.

Pricing Change #4 – Annualization of FY 2023 Hiring: The FY 2023 President’s Budget for

NEH included funding for the launch of three new offices: the Office of Data and Evaluation, the

Office of Outreach, and the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer (now known as the Office of

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, or DEIA). This pricing change annualizes hiring in

FY 2023 for these offices as well as other key leadership positions across the agency.

Pricing Change #5 – GSA Rent Increase: This pricing change reflects the increase to NEH’s rent

based on the FY 2024 rent estimate provided by the General Services Administration (GSA).

Pricing Change #6 – FPS Fee Adjustment: This pricing change reflects the increase in the

Federal Protective Service Basic Security Assessed Fee.

JUSTIFICATION OF PROGRAM CHANGES

FY 2024 OMB Submission

($ in thousands)

Positions

FTE

Amount

Program Change #1 –

Expansion of the Office

of Diversity, Equity,

Inclusion, and

Accessibility

$350

Program Change #2 –

Transition to Shared

Services

$650

Program Change #3 - IT

Modernization for

Federal Cybersecurity

by Design

$240

Program Change #4 -

Zero Trust

Implementation

$ 50

Program Change #5 -

Strengthening the

Foundations of our

Digitally Enabled Future

Human Capital

0.5

$85

Total Program

Changes -

Administration

1.5

$1,375

Program Change #1: Expansion of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and

Accessibility

In order to effectively pursue its goals, NEH seeks to cultivate and sustain a workforce that reflects

the breadth and diversity of the American people. In FY 2022, NEH developed a DEIA Strategic

Plan to recruit and retain a workforce that draws from the full diversity of the nation. In FY 2023,

NEH established a Chief Diversity Officer position to implement the DEIA Strategic Plan and

design a whole-of-agency, data-driven DEIA program at NEH.

NEH requests $0.350 million for 2 positions (1 additional FTE) and support costs in FY 2024 to

expand the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Reporting to the Chair, the

Chief Diversity Officer and Office of DEIA will (1) implement recruitment and hiring policies and

practices in coordination with the Office of Human Resources to strategically integrate DEIA

goals, explore opportunities to achieve more equitable outcomes, mitigate the effects of systemic

bias on underserved communities, and establish an open and fair process consistent with merit

systems principles; (2) design professional development opportunities for NEH staff that create an

inclusive, engaged, and high-performing workforce; and (3) embed accessibility as a core design

component of NEH facilities, digital spaces, website services, and programs so that all people,

including people with disabilities, can fully and independently use them. The Office of DEIA will

oversee the implementation of NEH’s Equity Action Plan and ensure DEIA is a cross-cutting

component in the development of NEH policies and procedures. It will provide annual progress

reports on the agency’s DEIA program to the Chair.

Program Change #2: Transition to Shared Services

Beginning in FY 2022, NEH began the work to transition from its legacy Oracle financial system

to a shared service provider. The transition from the historical agency-maintained financial

management system to a shared service provider will modernize all accounting and financial

management transaction processes; develop and maintain a sustainable cost structure to the

agency’s financial management system; ensure continued and sustainable compliance with OMB

Circular A-123 Appendix D requirements; reduce or eliminate enterprise management risks related

to agency financial management system compliance with statutory regulations; and reduce staffing

costs through process efficiencies. Currently the agency has a manual, form/paper-driven process

for payments and internal controls, which has led to unsustainable staffing requirements to

maintain effective internal controls and operational efficiencies. The agency’s manual payment

process and controls have been identified as risks by NEH’s enterprise risk management program.

In FY 2023, NEH began the engagement and migration activities with the Treasury Administrative

Center (ARC), which was selected as the agency’s shared service provider. The agency will

transition and “go-live” in the new financial system in FY 2024. In FY 2024, $0.650 million will

be needed to fund $0.5 million in costs for the grant system interface build and $0.150 million in

recurring costs based on Treasury ARC’s adoption of the One Stream Software solution and the

licensing cost share.

Program Change #3: IT Modernization for Federal Cybersecurity by Design

NEH has inventoried agency devices consistent with the Devices pillar outlined in CISA’s Zero-

Trust Maturity Model. There are several core network devices and servers at the agency that are

nearing end-of-life or whose maintenance costs are prohibitively expensive. NEH requests $0.1

million to replace outdated devices and to lower its technology debt by providing improved

mobility through secure wireless access. Additionally, NEH plans to transition from its current

agency-owned financial management system to a Shared Service Provider. In keeping with the

Cybersecurity by Design priority, NEH requests $0.140 million for a full independent Assessment

and Authorization of the security controls that will be managed by NEH.

Program Change #4: Zero Trust Implementation

OMB’s Moving the U.S. Government Toward Zero Trust Cybersecurity Principles (M-22-09)

guidance outlines zero trust strategic goals that must be achieved by the end of FY 2024. In prior

years, NEH has received funding for reaching many of these goals. However, several of the goals

still need to be addressed. For Devices, NEH requires new capabilities to centrally manage

inventories and detect rogue devices. For Networks, NEH needs to transition to a protective

Domain Name System service. For Data, NEH needs funds to implement data categorization. To

achieve these goals, NEH requests $50,000 in FY 2024 and notes there may be additional

maintenance costs in subsequent years.

Program Change #5: Strengthening the Foundations of our Digitally Enabled Future Human

Capital

In response to OMB’s Administration Cybersecurity Priorities for the FY 2024 Budget (M-22-16)

guidance, NEH requests funding to hire a cybersecurity-focused position. The addition of this

position will allow dedicated staff to support new initiatives such as managing centralized device

inventory, maintaining new vulnerability monitoring requirements, conducting security architecture

reviews and risk and vulnerability assessments, managing enterprise-wide logging, and ongoing

review and approval cycles. The additional cybersecurity position will also support the enhanced

M-19-03 High Value Asset (HVA) Assessment Program, from the HVA Program Management

Office, for the assessment and frequency requirements for NEH HVA systems, like NEH’s

financial system. This includes HVA readiness activities such as Security Architecture Review,

Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, and Federal Incident Response Evaluation in preparation for

HVA assessment. The requested position will work closely with the Chief Information Security

Officer and Information System Security Officer to ensure that NEH implements, manages,

monitors, measures, and reports on cybersecurity initiatives within the required timelines.

SPECIAL INITIATIVES

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Special Initiatives

$5,052

$7,000

$6,950

($50)

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

Today we face some of our greatest challenges as a nation: among them, sustaining our democratic

institutions, building a more just and equitable society, and protecting our cultural inheritance from

the effects of climate change. In response to these challenges, NEH has launched a new special

initiative, American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future, that leverages the

humanities to strengthen our democracy, advance equity for all, and address our changing climate.

NEH’s American Tapestry initiative takes its inspiration from the agency’s 1965 founding

legislation and the goals it sets forth for NEH: “a better understanding of the past, a better analysis

of the present, and a better view of the future.” Through new funding opportunities at NEH,

American Tapestry encourages humanities projects that elevate the role of civics in schools and

public programs, advance knowledge of the country’s history and political institutions, and

examine threats to its democratic principles. The initiative also encourages projects that explore the

untold stories of historically underrepresented groups and build capacity at cultural and educational

institutions to benefit underserved communities. Finally, the initiative welcomes projects that

promote research into the historical roots and cultural effects of climate change and support the

cultural and educational sectors in building climate resilience. By supporting humanities projects

that align with these three themes—strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and

addressing our changing climate—the American Tapestry initiative seeks to elevate our country’s

history in all its complexity and diversity.

Strengthening Our Democracy

“In the face of sustained and alarming challenges to democracy, universal human rights, ...

— all around the world, democracy needs champions… [H]ere in the United States, we

know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic

institutions requires constant effort. American democracy is an ongoing struggle to live up

to our highest ideals and to heal our divisions; to recommit ourselves to the founding idea

of our nation captured in our Declaration of Independence…. In my view, this is the

defining challenge of our time.”

Remarks by President Joseph R. Biden

December 9, 2021

As stated in NEH’s founding legislation, “Democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens.”

Since its founding, NEH has supported projects that make the history of the United States available

to all Americans. For example, NEH supports scholarly editions, many of them now available

electronically, of such iconic figures in American history as George Washington, Abraham

Lincoln, Jane Addams, and Martin Luther King Jr. Through the National Digital Newspaper

Program, NEH has made millions of pages of historical newspapers from every state in the union

available to students, teachers, and the public. NEH has also supported professional development

programs for K–12 teachers on such topics as the Underground Railroad and the U.S. Constitution

as well as documentary films on the Civil Rights Movement and humanities discussion programs

on African American poetry. The 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils engage audiences

of all ages in reflection and discussion on the nation’s founding and its complex history; the core

principles of a constitutional government; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a

democracy. NEH’s American Tapestry initiative will continue to invest in these humanities

projects as well as new programs that support civics education, foster civic engagement, increase

media and information literacy, and examine threats to America’s democracy. These programs

include the following:

A More Perfect Union

NEH’s A More Perfect Union initiative supports the 250th anniversary of the signing of the

Declaration of Independence in 2026 by funding projects that enhance our understanding of the

country’s founding period. As part of the initiative, NEH encourages projects that make documents

and the historical records from this period more accessible, promote a deeper understanding of

early American history, and advance knowledge of our core principles of government. The

initiative helps students, teachers, and the public better understand America’s constitutional

democracy and how the country’s founding ideals have been met over time.

In FY 2022, NEH entered into a new four-year cooperative agreement with National History Day

(NHD), a longstanding partner of NEH that promotes historical research among middle and high

school students. Each year, more than 500,000 students participate in NHD and develop topics;

conduct research; and produce papers, documentary films, exhibitions, websites, and performances

that present the results of their research. The 2022–2026 partnership between NEH and NHD, titled

“A More Perfect Union: America at 250,” will continue educational programming that promotes

student learning while producing opportunities to deepen and inspire the teaching of history.

Programs and activities will focus on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of

Independence and the continued struggle toward a more just, inclusive, and sustainable society.

NHD programs and content will examine how our founding ideals have been applied, challenged,

and reconceived from our founding to today’s headlines. The timing of the project coincides with

NHD's Inclusive History Initiative, which seeks to broaden perspectives about diverse historical

narratives and extend the reach of NHD to underserved communities. NHD will work with NEH’s

state and jurisdictional humanities councils to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones

to benefit teachers and students in each state and jurisdiction.

In FY 2024, NEH will also contribute to the ongoing development of new K –12 curriculum

resources in civics and U.S. History for EDSITEment (edsitement.neh.gov), an award-winning

website for K–12 educators and homeschooling parents that freely makes available hundreds of

classroom-ready resources in the humanities. EDSITEment’s “A More Perfect Union Teacher’s

Guide” offers a collection of resources that prepare educators and students for the 250th

anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

Lastly, as part of A More Perfect Union, NEH will continue its work as an ex-officio member of

the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission. In August 2021, NEH and other federal agencies signed

a memorandum of understanding with the Commission “to cooperate with the Commission in

planning, encouraging, developing, and coordinating appropriate commemorative activities.”

United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture

Hate must have no safe harbor in America— especially when that hate fuels the kind of violence

we’ve seen from Oak Creek to Pittsburgh, from El Paso to Poway, and from Atlanta to Buffalo.

When ordinary Americans cannot participate in the basic activities of everyday life—like shopping

at the grocery store or praying at their house of worship—without the fear of being targeted and

killed for who they are, our security as well as democracy are at risk.

The arts and humanities help us develop the skills needed to find connection, common purpose,

and recognition of our shared humanity. They build empathy, strengthen mutual understanding,

and remind us of the norms and agreements we rely on to care for one another. In coordination

with the White House “United We Stand” Summit in September 2022, NEH launched a new

initiative with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) titled United We Stand: Connecting

Through Culture that uses the arts and humanities to combat hate-motivated violence. This

initiative includes funding opportunities for partners in every state, the District of Columbia, and

all U.S. jurisdictions for programming promoting civic engagement, social cohesion, and cross-

cultural understanding. The initiative also includes resources and capacity building to protect

cultural institutions targeted by ongoing domestic extremism and hate-based violence, such as

cultural centers serving groups victimized by hate; partnerships with local organizations to host

communal gatherings, such as meals, concerts, and convenings to help process grief and build

resilience in communities recovering from hate-based incidents; and emergency “second

responder” relief assisting local cultural and educational institutions with programming in the wake

of hate-based incidents, such as oral history projects that document survivors’ experiences.

As part of this initiative, NEH will implement a nationwide program in FY 2024 in all 56 U.S.

states and jurisdictions that aims to prevent and confront hate, radicalization, and hate-related

violence and build united fronts against hate at the community and national levels. First launched

in FY 2023, NEH will offer up to $2.8 million in funding in FY 2024 to NEH’s state and

jurisdictional partners to develop place-based humanities programming that educates the public on

domestic extremism and hate-based violence. This project is modeled on NEH’s 2021-2022

nationwide civics program, which awarded $2.8 million in funding to NEH’s 56 state and

jurisdictional affiliates to support civics education and American history programs that deepen

audience understanding of and commitment to our nation’s core governmental principles. NEH

will also include a special encouragement for national and regional programs that respond to the

United We Stand initiative within its Public Humanities Projects program, which supports projects

that bring the ideas of the humanities to life for general audiences through public programming.

Finally, NEH will create a portal of shared resources and tool kits for communities targeted by

ongoing domestic extremism and hate-based violence, which will be modeled on NEH’s 2019

grant to the Council of American Jewish Museums that supported safety and emergency

preparedness webinars for Jewish cultural sites after the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre.

Dangers and Opportunities of Technology: Perspectives from the Humanities

This program, launched in FY 2023 and funded through NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities

(ODH), funds research that examines technology and its relationship to society through the lens of

the humanities. Technology has had an enormous impact on modern society, affecting how we

work, communicate, learn, engage in the political process, and live. The relationship between

technology and culture continues to have dramatic impacts, both positive and negative, on our

health, the environment, our social interactions, our government, cultural and educational

institutions, the arts, and nearly all other aspects of life. Research may address a wide range of

topics where technology plays a key role, including social media, disinformation, and the

democratic process. In FY 2024, NEH will continue and/or expand this program based on the

success of the FY 2023 pilot.

National Digital Broadcasting Program

The multifaceted story of the nation’s history from the 20th century to the present cannot be told

without audiovisual broadcasting. The NDBP, within NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access,

will digitize the nation’s audiovisual broadcasting heritage. Critical voices and historical events,

both familiar and lesser known, have been captured in recorded broadcasts that span the history of

news and public broadcasting. Historical radio and television programs have chronicled every facet

of our social, cultural, and political heritage, such as the Civil Rights Movement, U.S. wars and

conflicts, Indigenous heritage, education, protests, public policy, technology, business and

commerce, sports, the environment, and much more. That legacy of humanities-rich content,

captured in recorded broadcasts, is at critical risk of disappearing due to a confluence of factors

related to fragile formats, obsolescent playback equipment, lack of human and infrastructural

resources, and the sheer enormity of materials held by institutions large and small across the

country. Modeled after the current NDNP, which has been in existence since 2003, the NDBP will

begin as a multiyear initiative to digitize significant broadcast programming from every state and

jurisdiction.

Advancing Equity for Underserved Communities

The humanities are for everyone. Through NEH’s American Tapestry initiative, NEH will further

strengthen its statutory commitment to “the fostering of mutual respect … of all persons and

groups,” with “particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history.” NEH

will commit to an increased investment in initiatives, programs, and projects that are tailored to

capacity building, expanding access and inclusivity, and amplifying untold stories of historically

underserved groups. These include the following:

NEH’s Support for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

From 1819 through the 1970s, the United States Government operated a system of hundreds of

schools for Native children premised on a policy of forced cultural assimilation. Native children

were forcibly separated from their families and sent to attend federal Indian boarding schools,

where they were frequently subject to harsh treatment and abuse. Many of these students died or

were never returned to their families and communities; all were deprived of the family and

community connections, beliefs, cultures, and languages vital to their Indigenous identities.

NEH has a long history of supporting research, education, and public programming on the federal

Indian boarding school system and its enduring impact on individuals, families, and tribes today.

In FY 2024, NEH intends to continue its partnership with the Department of the Interior on the

Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy

of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact

and to shed light on the traumas of the past. Through this partnership, NEH will invest in new

humanities projects—including scholarly research, convenings, oral histories, and educational

programs—that further public understanding and knowledge of the history and impact of the

federal Indian boarding school system. These projects may include support for the development of

a model curriculum for K –12 students on the federal Indian boarding school system and its legacy;

scholarly research into the federal Indian boarding school system; interpretation plans for boarding

school sites; documentary films and humanities-based exhibitions on the boarding schools; digital

archives that preserve the history of boarding school sites; and partnerships with universities and

tribes to support oral history projects that collect, preserve, and make accessible stories of boarding

school survivors.

History and Culture Access Consortium for Historically Black Colleges and Universities

In FY 2021, NEH inaugurated a two-year partnership with the NMAAHC to invest $2.2 million in

the History and Culture Access Consortium (HCAC), a project that aims to enhance the ability of

HBCUs nationwide to care for and share archives that tell the story of African Americans and their

essential role in American culture and history. Their collections contain many keys to

understanding African American history and culture, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights

Movement to the Black Lives Matter Movement. NEH’s support of the HCAC program secures the

historical legacy of the five participating institutions, while enhancing scholarly and public access

to their cultural collections through an open-source digital platform and a national traveling

exhibition (tentatively titled Lift Every Voice), which is scheduled to premiere at NMAAHC in

March 2026.

An additional $1.5 million in FY 2024 will be spent over two years to further support HCAC.

These funds will be used to retain HBCU staff for the initiative to ensure the sustainability of

HCAC at each institution and engage youth through the fellowship and internship opportunities the

program offers. Furthermore, NEH funds will foster collaboration among HBCUs by supporting a

convening of potential partners for the second cohort. These funds will also ensure the

sustainability of the physical objects in Lift Every Voice through support for conservation treatment

for exhibition items and modifications required for the safe transport of the exhibition to other

institutions. NEH’s support of HCAC will also foster additional collaboration and dissemination of

Lift Every Voice through an expansion of host sites for the exhibition. By highlighting the

experiences of students at HBCUs, Lift Every Voice will especially appeal to youth, and with

NEH’s support, HCAC will engage youth through targeted outreach activities at the campuses and

exhibition sites throughout the country. Complementary pedagogical materials will also be created

for the online exhibition.

National Convening on the Future of Graduate Education

In FY 2016, NEH’s Office of Challenge Programs launched the Next Generation Humanities PhD

program to assist universities in developing new models of doctoral education in the humanities.

Traditional humanities PhD programs still focus on preparing graduate students for teaching

positions even though the number of tenure track teaching positions has been in decline. Projects

supported through this program helped higher education faculty and administrators reconsider

traditional approaches to graduate training in the humanities. In FY 2024, as a follow up to this

program, NEH intends to partner with institutions to support a national convening on the current

state and the future of graduate education in the humanities. The convening will include invited

speakers and proposed sessions that encourage participation by a wide variety of stakeholders in

graduate humanities education. The convening will focus on issues of equity and inclusion in

humanities graduate education with the goal of ensuring that the next generation of scholars,

educators, and humanities professionals better reflect the country's diversity.

Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education

This program, launched in FY 2023 through NEH’s Division of Education Programs, is

specifically tailored to the needs of underserved educational institutions, especially Native

American and Indigenous institutions, minority-serving institutions, community colleges, rural

colleges and universities, schools that have a majority minority-undergraduate enrollment, and

those that serve significant numbers of first-generation students. Spotlight on Humanities in Higher

Education supports the exploration and development of small projects that benefit underserved

populations through the teaching and study of the humanities. Eligible applicants include small to

medium two- and four-year institutions and nonprofit organizations whose work advances the

humanities at these institutions and among their faculty and students. In FY 2024, NEH will

continue and/or expand this program based on the success of the FY 2023 pilot.

Addressing a Changing Climate

Through NEH’s American Tapestry initiative, NEH will develop and implement programs that (1)

incorporate resilience and sustainability in the nation’s cultural and educational sectors and (2)

promote robust humanities research into the cultural and historical roots of climate change and its

impact on human language, culture, and society. These include the following:

A Community Conversation Initiative on Our Changing Climate

In FY 2024, NEH will plan and facilitate a national, humanities-based convening on the human

impacts of climate change in partnership with the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils.

NEH will develop a national advisory group of nationally recognized humanities scholars, climate

scientists, representatives from humanities councils, and other entities to coordinate the convening.

This convening will share humanities-based educational resources on the historical and cultural

aspects of climate change; promote audience engagement with ideas at the intersection of science

and the humanities; foster humanities-based discussions that deepen public understanding of the

history and science of climate change and its impact on their local communities and natural

resources; strengthen partnerships in the cultural and educational sectors in the environmental

sciences and conservation; and encourage and expand the councils’ support for humanities-based

resources K-12 audiences by including a special encouragement to develop age-appropriate

resources/curriculum and traveling bookshelves for children.

Humanities Fellowships on Climate Change

In FY 2024, NEH will award individual awards (“fellowships”) for research projects in the

environmental humanities through the Division of Research Programs. The Division’s individual

award programs are some of the agency’s highest-profile grant programs. Awards from these

programs are among the most prestigious for humanities researchers, and the results—typically

books—garner considerable media attention, are widely reviewed and discussed within academic

circles, and are acknowledged by major book awards.

Cultural and Community Resilience Program

This program, launched in FY 2023 through NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access, builds

cultural and community resilience in the face of natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This program supports efforts to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and COVID-19 on

communities while safeguarding their cultural resources, especially among disadvantaged

communities. In FY 2024, NEH will continue and/or expand this program based on the success of

the FY 2023 pilot.

Climate Smart Humanities Organizations

This program, launched in FY 2023 through NEH’s Office of Challenge Programs, enables cultural

organizations, such as museums, archives, and libraries, to develop strategic action plans. This

program enables America’s cultural stewards to study how their facilities, collections, staff, and

visitors may be threatened by climate change and make plans to address these threats. In FY 2024,

NEH will continue and expand this program based on the success of the FY 2023 pilot.

OFFICE OF CHALLENGE PROGRAMS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Challenge Programs

$13,600

$15,750

$14,800

($950)

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

Program Categories

• Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants

• Climate Smart Humanities Organizations

Program Descriptions and Accomplishments

The grants offered by the Office of Challenge Programs are NEH’s most important source of

assistance for organizations seeking to strengthen organizational and physical infrastructure in the

cultural and educational sectors and sustain significant humanities activities into the future.

Challenge grants are focused on long-term impact and offer federal funds that are only released

when matched with nonfederal third-party donations, usually at ratios of 3:1 or higher. In

recognition of the financial challenges that often confront institutions that have been historically

underserved by NEH, such as HBCUs, HSIs, TCUs, and community colleges, Challenge grants

extend a lower matching ratio of 1:1 for these applicants. Challenge grants provide NEH with the

opportunity to stimulate private philanthropy, while also increasing institutional commitment by

the recipient organizations.

Since 1977, Challenge grants have, adjusted for inflation, generated almost $4 billion in

nonfederal funds for the humanities. A wide array of nonprofit organizations throughout the

United States—museums, libraries, colleges and universities, scholarly research organizations,

tribal centers, state humanities councils, public radio and television stations, historical societies,

and historic sites—have taken up the NEH “challenge” as a means of increasing their capacity for

excellence in the humanities.

Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants

The Office’s Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants program is designed to

expand and strengthen the institutional base of the humanities by enabling infrastructure

development and capacity building for cultural and educational institutions. This program

supports the design, purchase, construction, restoration, or renovation of facilities for humanities

activities and sites of historic and cultural significance. A sampling of recent grants illustrates the

reach and impact of this funding:

• Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1695 as part of William Penn’s

charter, played a significant role in the establishment of the United States. Notable

members of the congregation included George Washington and Betsy Ross, along with

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and 13 other signers of the Declaration of Independence

—seven of whom are buried on the grounds. Christ Church was a center for 18th-century

political debates regarding the separation of church and state, and its clergy attended the

Continental Congress and the early United States Senate. The building is a National

Historic Landmark and is visited annually by about 250,000 tourists. The church’s brick

tower and its white spire are among Philadelphia's most treasured historic sites; however,

the 1754 steeple— one of the few standing wooden structures of its kind from the colonial

era—was listing two feet to the right and in need of urgent repair. NEH’s Challenge grant

funds leveraged a significant amount of private donations that made possible the

restoration of the exterior and interior of this iconic structure.

• An NEH Challenge grant contributed significantly to a capital campaign for the design

and construction of a new 30,000-square-foot Capital Jewish Museum in Washington,

D.C. This museum has vast holdings documenting the material culture and history of the

Jewish community in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and suburban

Maryland. The jewel of the collection is a historic synagogue that dates to 1876, which

was saved from demolition in 1969 by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater

Washington. NEH’s Challenge grant leveraged critical funds to enable the relocation of

the entire building to its new location at the site of the museum, as well as the construction

of a community lab, flexible programming space, exhibition galleries, and collections

storage space.

• Tennessee’s Pellissippi State Community College received a 1:1 matching offer to assist

the college in its efforts to create a new Appalachian Heritage Center on its Strawberry

Plains campus. Cultural resources currently held at the college’s main campus will be

transferred to the new center, including books and audiovisual materials on topics such as

the Civil War, mining, recreation, coal town life, bluegrass music, public health, regional

literature, Appalachian folklore, and handicrafts. By enabling students, faculty, and

members of the community to have access to such materials and to engage in related

coursework and programs, the new facility will have a profound impact on the region.

Climate Smart Humanities Organizations

This program, launched in FY 2023, enables cultural organizations, such as museums, archives,

and libraries, to develop strategic climate action plans. This program enables America’s cultural

stewards to study how their facilities, collections, staff, and visitors may be threatened by climate

change and make plans to address these threats. Activities under the Climate Smart program are

based on two parallel approaches: Mitigation planning is aimed at reducing energy costs and waste

within the institution, while adaptation planning assesses climate risks and identifies concrete steps

to prevent damage and danger to buildings, collections, and people.

The applications submitted at the program’s first deadline in January 2023 included a broad array

of cultural organizations across the country such as rural libraries, historic house museums, and

colleges and universities from Arkansas to Washington state. These projects proposed to work with

outside consultants to undertake energy audits, establish continuity of operation and disaster plans,

and perform building assessments to inform an overall carbon footprint calculation. These

activities contribute to increasing resiliency at humanities organizations and ensure the long-term

sustainability of their educational and cultural assets in service of the American people. In FY

2024, NEH will continue and expand this program based on the success of the FY 2023 pilot.

National Convening on the Future of Graduate Education

From 2016 –2018, NEH’s Next Generation Humanities PhD program assisted universities in

developing new models of doctoral education in the humanities. Projects supported through this

program challenged higher education faculty and administrators to reconsider traditional

approaches focused on preparing graduate students in the humanities for a dwindling number of

tenure-track teaching positions. Individual departments and programs across the country have

reimagined their programs by incorporating new types of mentorship opportunities, experiential

education, alternatives to the graduate thesis or dissertation, or other new models. Yet bringing

about actual change requires broad participation, communication, and outreach. Rethinking

doctoral education in the humanities is an essential part of addressing issues of equity and inclusion

to ensure that the next generation of scholars, educators, and humanities professionals better reflect

the country's diversity.

In FY 2024, Challenge Programs intends to partner with academic organizations to support a

national convening on the current state and the future of doctoral education with invited speakers

and sessions that encourage participation by a wide variety of stakeholders by involving graduate

students, graduate faculty, directors of graduate programs, deans, and other university

administrators, as well as scholars at affiliated organizations or engaged in related research. Topics

will include identifying successful programs, developing methods for scaling up such programs,

and creating networks to share best practices. A call for proposals will occur in early 2024, with the

convening scheduled to be held in the fall.

OFFICE OF DIGITAL HUMANITIES

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Digital Humanities

$5,500

$6,250

$6,050

($200)

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

Program Categories

• Digital Humanities Advancement Grants

• Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities

• Fellowships Open Book Program

• Dangers and Opportunities of Technology: Perspectives from the Humanities

Program Descriptions and Accomplishments

As our world becomes increasingly digital, computationally intensive research methods become

critically important to the humanities, as well as many other disciplines. Since the advent of the

internet, we have seen the creation of vast databases of digital books, newspapers, photographs,

music, and other materials. These and other research resources are the traditional materials

studied by humanities scholars. But now that we have access to millions of pages of materials in

digital form, how does this change the very nature of humanities research? How does the

immense scale of these materials, together with the availability of large-scale computing, change

the research paradigm? These are among the fundamental questions being addressed by the ODH.

NEH’s leadership role in the field of the digital humanities has been widely acknowledged in the

humanities community and has helped set the pace for research funders around the world. In the

years since the creation of ODH, the field has grown enormously, with many universities creating

digital centers and hiring new faculty, librarians, and technologists to work on digital humanities

projects.

NEH’s leadership has had enormous influence internationally as well as domestically. ODH has

worked collaboratively with peer-funding bodies around the world to help bring together

American researchers with their colleagues from abroad. Among the numerous international grant

programs sponsored by ODH is the Digging into Data Challenge, a competition that bridged the

humanities, social sciences, and data science from 2009 –2017. This program brought together

funding agencies from 11 different nations: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina,

the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Finland. Working with our

international peer agencies allowed NEH to leverage its funds in significant and long-lasting

ways.

ODH has funded several important projects that investigate historical events that have

contemporary relevance. One such project focused on flu pandemics, including those of 1889 and

1918. This historical work reveals how members of the public have responded to health measures

in the past and how the media has influenced the nation’s response to the pandemics. These

valuable historical lessons can in turn inform the efforts of contemporary public health officials to

manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another such ODH-supported project will help document a little-studied but important part of

American history: U.S. state constitutions. This grant to the Center for Constitutional Studies at

Utah Valley University supports undergraduate history students in their efforts to create a digital

model of archival materials that document U.S. state constitutional conventions. This project

supports the current Administration’s efforts to strengthen Americans’ knowledge of the

country’s principles of constitutional governance and democracy.

NEH’s ODH currently administers four innovative grant programs aimed at moving the field

forward.

Digital Humanities Advancement Grants

Just as astronomers need telescopes to view distant stars and chemists need mass spectrometers to

analyze laboratory samples, humanities scholars in the digital age need tools, methods, and

related infrastructure to perform their work. The very objects that scholars study daily—books,

music, newspapers, images, ancient artifacts—are increasingly available in digital form. This

alters the fundamental methods of humanities scholarship. Combining aspects of the humanities

with data science, ODH offers the Digital Humanities Advancement Grant (DHAG) program,

which encourages applicants to experiment, build, and deploy these new methods, tools, and

infrastructure for the humanities.

Some notable DHAG-funded projects include:

• A grant to the University of Maryland and Northeastern University to support the

refinement of machine-learning methods, to improve automatic handwritten text

recognition of Persian and Arabic manuscripts, and to make these sources more accessible

for humanities research and teaching.

• A grant to Washington State University for technical improvements to the Mukurtu

Content Management System and for the addition of two additional community hubs for

Native American and Native Alaskan communities located in southern California and

Alaska. Mukurtu is a free and open-source content management system and community

digital access platform built with and for Indigenous communities globally.

• A grant to the University of Minnesota to expand and refine a set of digital tools and work

processes that are being used to generate and map datasets of racial covenants

(“redlining”) from communities across the United States. This Mapping Prejudice project

investigates the growth of racial segregation and inequality in post-World War II

American urban areas through an examination of racial covenants.

Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities

This grant category encourages the sharing of best digital technology practices among humanities

scholars. As is apparent in the work supported under ODH’s other grant categories, an increasing

number of humanities scholars are using sophisticated digital tools and techniques. The Institutes

program sponsors workshops that allow scholars to learn about these new, advanced technologies,

tools, and techniques. This funding opportunity meets a growing need in the field, as most

institutes report receiving far more applications to attend than there are seats available.

A scholar who attended one of these institutes wrote a letter to the project director, saying “what I

learned at the NEH mini seminar absolutely surpassed anything that I could have imagined for the

utility of these new methods and technologies. I … left completely rethinking my own research.”

Another scholar wrote to say that the “institute was an amazing experience—one of the best

intellectual learning situations in my whole life.”

Examples of recent awards in the Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities

program include:

• A four-day summer workshop at the University of California, Berkeley, and follow-up

activities for 32 participants on the ethical and legal issues associated with the mining of

data from large-scale textual collections.

• A two-week-long institute hosted by George Mason University in Virginia that taught

participants how to create datasets, visualize data, and create maps, with the overarching

goal of creating a cohort of military historians who can use digital tools and methods to

examine issues at the intersection of war and society.

Fellowships Open Book Program

ODH partnered with NEH’s Division of Research Programs to develop the Fellowships Open

Book Program. The program has a simple purpose: to increase scholarly and public access to

NEH-funded research in the United States and abroad.

NEH’s long-standing fellowship programs (housed in the Division of Research Programs) offers

grants to scholars to undertake important research in the humanities. Grant recipients most often

publish the results of their research in book form. But these books, typically published by

university presses, seldom sell more than 200 to 300 copies, and thus have a limited reach outside

of academia. To help expand access to this scholarly work, the Fellowships Open Book Program

provides a modest grant ($5,500) to university presses to create digital, open-access editions of

these books that are free for anyone in the world to download and read. This program makes it

possible for thousands of people—from scholars to teachers to students to interested members of

the public—to have free access to these important scholarly works.

Some examples of recent awards in this category include:

• NEH fellow David Andrew Biggs is a professor at the University of California, Riverside.

He received an NEH fellowship to conduct research for his new book, Footprints of War:

Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam. His publisher, the University of Washington Press,

received a Fellowships Open Book Program award to make the book available in a free,

open-access digital edition. As described by his press, Footprints of War traces the long

history of conflict-produced spaces in Vietnam, beginning with early modern wars and the

French colonial invasion in 1885 and continuing through the collapse of the Saigon

government in 1975. The result is a richly textured history of militarized landscapes that

reveals the spatial logic of key battles such as the Tet Offensive.”

• NEH fellow Dennis J. Frost is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. He received

an NEH fellowship to conduct research for his book, More Than Medals: A History of the

Paralympics and Disability Sports in Postwar Japan. His publisher, Cornell University

Press, received a Fellowships Open Book Program award to make the book available in a

free, open-access digital edition. Here is how his press described this important work of

scholarship: “How does a small provincial city in southern Japan become the site of a

world-famous wheelchair marathon that has been attracting the best international athletes

since 1981? In More Than Medals, Dennis J. Frost answers this question and addresses the

histories of individuals, institutions, and events—the 1964 Paralympics, the FESPIC

Games, the Ōita International Wheelchair Marathon, the Nagano Winter Paralympics, and

the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games that played important roles in the development of

disability sports in Japan.”

Dangers and Opportunities of Technology: Perspectives from the Humanities

Technology has had an enormous impact on modern society, affecting how we work,

communicate, learn, engage in the political process, and live. The relationship between technology

and culture continues to have dramatic impacts, both positive and negative, on our health, the

environment, our social interactions, our government, cultural and educational institutions, the arts,

and nearly all other aspects of life.

The Dangers and Opportunities of Technology program, first launched in FY 2023, supports

humanistic research that explores the relationship between technology and society, examining the

ways in which current social and cultural issues are shaped by technology. Among other areas, the

program supports research to investigate climate change, racial equity, medical technologies,

wealth inequality, data privacy and ethics of algorithms, cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens,

supply chains and infrastructure, social media, disinformation, and the democratic process.

DIVISION OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Education Programs

$13,500

$15,400

$14,800

($600)

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

Program Categories

• Summer Institutes for School Teachers and for College and University Teachers

• Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops

• Dialogues on the Experience of War

• Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges

• Humanities Initiatives at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving

Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities

• Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities

• Humanities Connections

• Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education

• EDSITEment

• Cooperative Agreements and Special Projects

Program Descriptions and Accomplishments

Through its Division of Education Programs, NEH offers humanities programming that serves a

variety of educational needs, including programs for teacher and faculty professional

development; veterans returning to school; and the creation of higher education humanities

curricula. The Division also maintains EDSITEment (edsitement.neh.gov), an award-winning

website for K–12 educators and homeschooling parents that makes freely available hundreds of

classroom-ready resources in the humanities. In addition, through cooperative agreements and

special projects, the Division supports projects that enhance the teaching and learning of civics

and history at the K–12 level and that foster the integration of the humanities into postsecondary

STEM programs. These programs, undergirded by rigorous humanities scholarship, cultivate a

deep engagement with humanities disciplines and help participants acquire knowledge that is

crucial for an educated, engaged citizenry.

Summer Institutes

For more than five decades, NEH Summer Institutes have been one of the nation’s premier forms

of professional development for teachers in the humanities. Each Institute engages participants in

intensive programs of study with teams of scholars, who present a range of perspectives on

various themes in the humanities. By studying subjects such as history, literature, religion,

philosophy, and world languages, educators deepen their knowledge of the subjects they teach

and develop effective ways of bringing this understanding to their students.

The Institutes program offers an intensive residential experience that brings scholars and K–12

curriculum experts together with participants from all over the country. Most are residential, but

some offer an entirely online or a hybrid online/residential format. These options provide broader

access to educators, including those for whom travel is not possible. Upcoming Institutes will

feature topics on the history, culture, and literature of historically underserved communities, of

crucial environmental issues, and American civics. For example, teachers from kindergarten

through high school could attend NEH-supported institutes on topics such as the role of the First

Amendment in the Constitution in 21st-century America; youth participation in the Civil Rights

Movement; and the literature of climate futurism. College-level faculty will study, among other

topics, the literature of the Rust Belt ecosystem; the development of Cuban refugee communities

and politics in Florida; and the reconstruction of African American archives in South Carolina.

Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops

The Landmarks of American History and Culture program supports summer workshops that

introduce K–12 teachers from across the United States to teaching important themes and topics in

American history, culture, and civics by using historical and cultural sites. Landmarks workshops

are held at or near presidential residences and libraries; colonial-era settlements and missions;

historic forts and battlefields; industrial centers; and sites associated with notable writers,

architects, and artists. Workshops involve leading scholars and help participants develop new

teaching resources. Projects accommodate 36 teachers at one-week sessions, which are offered

twice during the summer. As with the Institutes program, Landmarks workshops are available in

residential, online, or hybrid models.

Upcoming Landmarks workshops will cover a variety of areas that connect topics important to

the contemporary K–12 classroom to specific historic sites across the country. Several will focus

on issues pertaining to American diversity and the environment. One will investigate the

significance of Thomasville, Georgia, to the Civil Rights Movement, while others will engage in

archaeological approaches to the study of African American and Indigenous histories in New

England and Virginia.

Dialogues on the Experience of War

The Dialogues on the Experience of War grant program supports the study and discussion of

important humanities sources about war to help U.S. military veterans and others think more

deeply about the issues raised by war and military service. Projects are mainly designed to reach

military veterans; however, projects involving discussion groups that integrate veterans with

civilians, men and women in active service, and military families are welcome. Project teams are

expected to include humanities scholars, military veterans, and individuals with relevant

experience.

The Dialogues program promotes discussions of topics such as the nature of duty, heroism,

suffering, loyalty, and patriotism. Awards support the recruitment and training of discussion

leaders, followed by the convening of at least two discussion programs. Applications come from a

wide array of institutions, including universities, two- and four-year colleges, library systems,

museums, theater companies, state humanities councils, and veteran-serving nonprofit

organizations.

Among this program’s noteworthy awards is a recent grant to the Chinese Historical Society of

America to offer veterans, their families, and the public a window into the Asian American

experience defending the U.S. in conflicts from WWII through Afghanistan. An award to Bowie

State University in Maryland will support discussions centering on service, sacrifice, and

reintegration of African American service members as both remembered and imagined in the

Civil War and the Vietnam War. A third grant to St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York,

will invite Afghan interpreters, Special Immigrant Visa holders, and others to explore World War

I and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges

The Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges program supports institutional needs in

humanities programming at the nation’s two-year institutions, which collectively educate 40

percent of America’s postsecondary students (over half of whom identify as other-than-white).

Grants in this program give institutions a wide scope in developing programs and initiatives that

are likely to work well within their communities and organizational structures. Grant support is

available to enhance existing humanities programs or courses, or to develop new ones. New

courses are often developed in cooperation with representatives of professional fields of study,

such as business, law, economics, technology, and nursing. The grants can also support

collaborative projects between the grantee and a nearby college, university, or K–12 school

district.

Recently funded projects reflect creative engagement with the country’s increasingly diverse

population. Faculty at Manchester Community College in Connecticut are developing a new, low-

cost reader for art history classrooms focused on the art, culture, and historical perspectives of

traditionally marginalized communities. Other projects address issues related to climate change.

An award to LaGuardia Community College in New York will support a faculty-student program

investigating political and environmental borders in the context of rising sea levels.

Humanities Initiatives at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving

Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities

The Humanities Initiatives program extends the reach of the Division’s grant opportunities to

three types of traditionally underserved institutions: HBCUs, HSIs, and TCUs. Grants made under

the Humanities Initiatives program may be used to enhance the humanities content of the

institutions’ existing programs or develop new programs, such as Native language programs or

summer bridge programs for high school students. The funded projects may build ties among

faculty at several institutions or take advantage of underused humanities resources in the

surrounding community. The projects may also use grant funds to build curricular ties between

the humanities and the professions, such as medicine, law, business, or economics.

NEH awards in this program have supported projects that explore a range of topics and use a

variety of approaches. Examples include an interdisciplinary group of faculty at Howard

University in Washington, D.C., creating an innovative certificate program in the digital

humanities for graduate students; a center for the study of the American West at West Texas

A&M University focusing on the cultural and historical roles of Mexican Americans in the

Southern Plains; and Mendocino-Lake Community College in California collaborating with local

Native communities to improve the teaching of Native history and cultures at the college.

Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities

Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities meets the needs of a broad array of

institutions, including HBCUs, predominantly Black institutions, community colleges

transitioning to four-year degree programs, as well as technical colleges and other two- and four-

year colleges and universities.

Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities, like the other Humanities Initiatives

programs, is open and flexible in design, encouraging institutions to consider how they might

create curricula, programs, or faculty development opportunities that meet their needs. The

program receives applications from a wide range of institutions, including large research

universities, liberal arts colleges, and teaching-focused state colleges. For example, Framingham

State University in Massachusetts is integrating the study of race in the United States into its

curriculum through the digital humanities. Faculty at the University of Wyoming are creating an

online repository of civics education resources for teachers across the state. Fort Lewis College in

Colorado will promote Native language revitalization through a summer institute, while Gallaudet

University in Washington, D.C., is developing a new interdisciplinary doctoral program in deaf

studies.

Humanities Connections

Humanities Connections supports institutions of higher education as they develop curricular

innovations that address current challenges for the humanities in undergraduate education. This

program encourages projects that seek to bridge the gap between the humanities and other

disciplines, including the sciences, the non-humanistic social sciences, and technical and

professional areas of study. Projects must promote: (1) a substantive and purposeful integration of

the subject matter, perspectives, and pedagogical approaches in the humanities and one or more

other disciplines; (2) collaboration between faculty from two or more separate departments or

schools at one or more institutions; (3) experiential learning as an intrinsic part of the institution’s

curricular plan; and (4) long-term institutional support for the proposed curriculum innovations.

Applicants to Humanities Connections may seek funding for either a planning grant (one year) or

an implementation grant (up to three years). Recently funded projects have focused on a range of

fields, with medical humanities, humanities and technology, and the environmental humanities

being particularly prominent among them.

The most recent round of this program’s awards includes several projects that address

environmental challenges or highlight the importance of civics education in underserved or at-risk

communities. NEH awarded Mars Hill University in North Carolina a planning grant to transform

their campus museum into a center for interdisciplinary education. Western Michigan University

will use a planning grant to connect the humanities to its climate change curriculum. The

University of Northern Iowa will help teachers across the state prepare their students for engaged

citizenship.

Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education

In FY 2023, the Division of Education Programs launched a new program, Spotlight on Higher

Education, which supports the exploration and development of small projects that benefit

underserved populations through the teaching and study of the humanities. Eligible applicants

include small- to medium-size two- and four-year institutions and nonprofit organizations whose

work advances the humanities at these institutions and among their faculty and students. In its first

cycle, NEH received 140 applications from institutions in 39 states and Puerto Rico, including

Native American and Indigenous institutions, HBCUs, TCUs, HSIs, community colleges, rural

colleges and universities, schools that have a majority minority-undergraduate enrollment, and

those that serve significant numbers of first-generation students.

The program supports activities such as curricular or program development, expert consultations,

speakers’ series, student research, creation of teaching resources, and community engagement. It

uses a streamlined application format and offers informational webinars and workshops designed

to enhance application success. Applications are selected through peer review, and evaluation

criteria focuses on intellectual significance, feasibility, and the project’s impact on the institution.

The program is offered at an exploratory level of up to $25,000 and a small project level of up to

$60,000. A grant term lasting up to 24 months encourages effective small-scale programming

while alleviating the institutional burden associated with extensive grant management.

EDSITEment

EDSITEment (edsitement.neh.gov) is a nationally recognized website for K–12 humanities

teachers. The website is a trusted source of high-quality educational materials for public, private,

and homeschool educators. Averaging 200,000 unique users each month, EDSITEment offers an

expansive suite of lesson plans, multimedia resources, and digital learning tools for teaching

history, literature, arts, language, and culture.

EDSITEment’s notable strengths in history and social studies serve teachers who seek to deepen

students’ understanding of the history and culture of America and America’s constitutional

democracy. In FY 2023 –2024, EDSITEment will continue to develop a new suite of curricular

modules for grades K –12 in civics education, American history, and world history. These new

resources include lesson planning on Constitutional amendments, Indigenous history and

contemporary culture, government, intellectual and artistic movements of the Progressive era, and

the civilizations and empires of Greece, Rome, India, and China.

Cooperative Agreements and Special Projects

Cooperative Agreements and Special Projects support education-related activities that fall outside

the Division’s regular programming categories.

The Division is managing two cooperative agreements, awarded in FY 2020 and FY 2022, that

support innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the humanities:

• Teagle Foundation. In 2020, NEH entered into a five-year cooperative agreement with

the Teagle Foundation that aims to revitalize the role of the humanities in undergraduate

education. The project emphasizes: (1) using foundational humanities texts to explore

enduring human questions in gateway courses, and (2) creating thematically organized

general education pathways that link the humanities to students’ professional aspirations.

An important goal of this cooperative agreement is to attract a wide variety of

participating institutions—including state and regional universities, small liberal arts

colleges, and minority-serving institutions—that will adapt this approach to general

education on their campuses to fit their own needs.

• National History Day. In FY 2022, NEH entered into a new four-year cooperative

agreement with NHD, a longstanding partner of NEH that promotes historical research

among middle and high school students, as part of its A More Perfect Union initiative.

Each year, more than 500,000 students participate in NHD and develop topics; conduct

research; and produce papers, documentary films, exhibitions, websites, and performances

that present the results of their research. The 2022–2026 partnership between NEH and

NHD, titled “A More Perfect Union: America at 250,” will continue educational

programming that promotes student learning while producing opportunities to deepen and

inspire the teaching of history. Programs and activities will focus on the 250th anniversary

of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the continued struggle toward a

more just, inclusive, and sustainable society. Programs and content will examine how our

founding ideals have been applied, challenged, and reconceived from our founding to

today’s headlines. The Division’s support of NHD helps make possible outreach to

teachers through workshops and webinars, a lead essay in the annual curriculum theme

book, and the “Ask the NEH Expert” video series for NHD contestants. This iteration of

the cooperative agreement introduces a new strategy to encourage collaboration between

NHD coordinators nationwide and state humanities councils; greater outreach through

NHD affiliates to reach tribal, urban, and rural schools; and the recruitment of a more

diverse pool of judges from underserved communities.

In FY 2024, NEH will also contribute to the ongoing development of new K–12

curriculum resources in civics and U.S. History for EDSITEment. “A More Perfect Union

Teacher’s Guide” offers a collection of resources that prepare educators and students for

the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

OFFICE OF FEDERAL/STATE PARTNERSHIP

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Federal/State Partnership

$54,348

$65,000

$66,000

$1,000

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

The Office of Federal/State Partnership serves as the liaison to NEH’s humanities council

affiliates in the 50 states, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Marianas,

Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The humanities councils help NEH realize its two

primary goals of advancing knowledge and understanding of the humanities and increasing public

awareness of, access to, and support for the humanities throughout the United States.

Approximately 40 percent of NEH’s annual appropriation of program funds is awarded to the

humanities councils through the General Operating Support (GOS) Grant program. The Office

administers this non-competitive grant program by monitoring and evaluating council activity and

operations; maintaining network-wide communication; identifying the need for and providing

capacity-building resources; facilitating connectivity between council and NEH leadership;

promoting NEH news, funding opportunities, and resources; and when directed by the NEH

Chair, managing supplemental awards for emergency relief and special initiatives.

The councils are cultural leaders in their states and jurisdictions; they leverage their partnership

with NEH to forge strategic collaborations, develop support for the humanities, and to build the

capacity of the cultural sectors they serve. Through grantmaking and programming, the councils

support a wide array of humanities activities that are tailored to the resources, demographics,

interests, and needs of each state or jurisdiction. The Office encourages the councils to support

programs that make humanities ideas accessible to the public, foster community discussion of

important humanities topics, and deepen public understanding of American history and our

nation’s core principles of constitutional governance and democracy.

FY 2022 Humanities Councils’ Activities, Outcomes, and Reach

The 54 state and jurisdictional humanities councils and two interim partners are required to report

annually on activity funded by the GOS award and/or funds leveraged to meet the required cost

share. Councils also report on subawards made with GOS funds and/or funds leveraged to meet the

required cost share, GOS-funded council activity during the past funding period, and GOS-funded

subrecipient activity from subawards that closed during that period, which may include subaward

activity outside of the period. It should be noted that councils also subaward funding from other

sources, but for the purpose of reporting to NEH, councils are only required to report on GOS-

funded activities and subawards. In FY 2022, the 54 state and jurisdictional humanities councils

and two interim partners made a total of 1,833 GOS-funded subawards. In addition to GOS-funded

activities, in FY 2022, all 54 state and jurisdictional humanities councils and two interim partners

continued to participate in NEH’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) program. A total of 4,173

humanities organizations received a combined amount of $45.6 million dollars in ARP funding

from their humanities councils. Organizations in 90% of congressional districts received funding.

The work of ARP is ongoing; councils will submit final performance reports in August 2023.

Strengthening Our Democracy

State and jurisdictional humanities councils provide rich humanities-based programs and

resources that support civics education and deepen Americans’ knowledge of the country’s

democratic traditions and constitutional principles; foster civic engagement and/or media and

information literacy; and examine threats to our democracy. Councils utilize a wide range of

program formats designed to engage audiences of all ages in reflection and discussion on the

nation’s founding and its complex history; the core principles of a constitutional government; and

the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy. Council-supported resources and

programs that benefit youth range from efforts to promote early literacy to NHD to K-12 teacher

training institutes. Missouri Humanities worked with 36 current and former female Missouri

senators to publish You Can, Too!, a children’s book of short stories about the politicians’

journeys to the state senate. The book is comprised of diverse accounts of female empowerment

and perseverance, including those of Gwen Giles, the first African American woman to serve in

the legislature, Gina Walsh, a former blue-collar construction worker, and Roseann Bentley, a

former schoolteacher castigated by her detractors because of her sex. Despite these senators’

political differences, You Can, Too! stresses their shared belief in public service. The book aims

to both encourage children to read and to inspire young readers—especially young girls—to

engage in civic life. Partnering with Missouri Life magazine, the council printed 10,000 copies of

the book, which were distributed to libraries and classrooms across the state.

Humanities Texas ran K-12 teacher professional development programs themed around U.S.

constitutional governance and democratic principles. Led by humanities scholars, educators

engaged in study and conversations that prepared them to help their students understand their

roles and responsibilities as citizens. “Shaping the American Republic,” the council’s weekly

webinar series, examined how the new nation grappled with questions of representation and

governmental powers and how these reckonings continued into the Civil War and Reconstruction

era. A webinar series on teaching America’s founding documents—the Declaration of

Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and George Washington’s

Farewell Address—focused on their historical contexts and intellectual contents. These close

examinations provided teachers with nuanced interpretations of these sources to take back to their

classrooms.

Several councils also support or lead their state’s NHD program. A leader in history and civics

education, NHD inspires over half a million middle- and high-school students around the world

each year to conduct original, historical research about historical people and events under broad

encompassing themes. As state NHD affiliates, councils coordinate local-level contests where

students can compete for the chance to advance to the National Contest and provide

programmatic materials and workshops for teachers and students.

Humanities councils work with scholars and networks of partners to produce public humanities

programs that bring people together, contextualize important issues, facilitate conversation, create

space for thoughtful, informed civic reflection, and elevate previously marginalized voices and

histories. For example, Illinois Humanities’s Road Scholars Speakers Bureau invites Illinois

writers, historians, folklorists, and living history interpreters to engage with audiences in different

venues across the state. The current roster features 28 speakers offering 44 programs; nine

programs are available in Spanish and two are available in Mandarin. Recent events include

“Vibrant, Resilient, Still Here: Contemporary Native Americans in Illinois,” led by Pamala Silas,

a member of the Menominee Indian Tribe and an Oneida, and “Not Quite: Asian Americans and

the ‘Other’ in the Era of the Pandemic and the Uprising.” The presentations helped attendees

explore the history of American democracy through the stories of underrepresented communities.

The Northern Marianas Humanities Council used ARP funds to support a community project that

invites scholars and the public to participate in the commonwealth’s cultural heritage digital

archive: community participants identify and contextualize objects and people included in the

photographic collections. This work has affirmed the council’s conviction that providing people

with the opportunity to engage with and add meaning and local context to primary sources builds

community, deepens the public’s appreciation of historic preservation, and adds to the historic,

cultural, and academic value of the collections.

In FY 2021, NEH awarded each of the councils and interim partners $50,000 to implement

programs aligned with the goals of the agency’s A More Perfect Union initiative, with a particular

focus on strengthening Americans’ knowledge of our nation’s principles of constitutional

governance, deepening public understanding of American history, and addressing the experiences

of Native Americans and other underrepresented communities.

Under this initiative, councils are using the funds to collaborate with libraries, community

colleges, museums, tribal communities, and other organizations to develop programming that

reflects the cultural resources, history, traditions, and interests of the state or jurisdiction. For

example, the Amerika Samoa Humanities Council hosted five moderated public discussion events

to raise public awareness of the historic significance of the Deed of Cession (which ceded

American Samoa to the U.S.) and the American Samoa Constitution. The discussions deepened

audiences’ understandings of the principles of constitutional government and democracy. Panel

moderators and speakers included scholars and experts in jurisprudence, political science, and

history, joined by community leaders. To supplement the discussions, the council printed pocket

booklets in English and Samoan of the American Samoa Constitution—a document not currently

included in the islands’ public-school curriculum—with companion teaching resources including

a radio program and a small traveling exhibition. In 2022, the Louisiana Endowment for the

Humanities (LEH) launched “Who Gets to Vote? Conversations on Voting Rights in America,” a

series of discussions on the history of voting in the United States. Through a competitive granting

process, LEH staff selected five geographically diverse host sites representing a combination of

rural and urban communities, granting each a subaward to each to host the four-part, scholar-led

reading and discussion series.

Advancing Equity and Support for Underserved Communities

Councils have always sought to reach a broad, statewide audience; recently councils are employing

more intentional assessment efforts to identify underserved communities, address issues of equity

such as application barriers, and to increase access to grants and programs. Through outreach and

grant workshops for cultural organizations in underserved communities, the New Jersey Council

for the Humanities (NJCH) is building equity through its grantmaking process with great success.

In 2021, new-to-NJCH organizations made up 50 percent of the annual applicant pools. Councils in

Wisconsin and Pennsylvania used ARP funds to support subawards to organizations committed to

serving previously marginalized communities, including a library capacity-building project focused

on persons disadvantaged by persistent poverty or inequality, an organization that elevates stories

of recent immigrants, and the documentation of the many ways African American and Latinx

people have worked to secure their civil rights.

Other equity-related examples abound. In 2021, California Humanities created a series of free

online learning sessions, “Tools of the Trade: A Practical Series for Humanities Practitioners,” to

support the public humanities through the COVID-19 pandemic. These sessions helped build and

rebuild the capacity of humanities professionals and organizations to provide relevant, responsive,

and engaging humanities programs. Session topics included “Reaching New and Underrepresented

Audiences,” “Best Practices for Increasing Accessibility,” and “Programming in a Pandemic:

Options for Physically Distanced Programming.” Through a partnership with the University of

Arkansas’s Partners for Inclusive Communities, Arkansas Humanities includes guidance in its

quarterly magazine on ways to build welcoming, inclusive, accessible programming for people

who are disabled.

Council-led programs occur in many spaces, both virtual and in-person, in places such as public

libraries, community centers, churches, and other local venues where people live and work. For

example, many humanities councils develop programming for people who are incarcerated. The

Mississippi Humanities Council has an ongoing partnership with the Mississippi State Penitentiary

at Parchman for the “Prison-to-College Pipeline” and “Prison Writes” initiatives, and in 2022

completed their well-received in-person Death Row book discussion program. In 2021, Humanities

New York launched a post-incarceration humanities partnership grant opportunity for nonprofit

organizations that serve prisoners—and their families—who are going through the process of

societal reentry after a period of incarceration.

Addressing a Changing Climate

After severe weather events, the state and jurisdictional humanities councils are often at the

forefront of recovery efforts for damage to cultural and educational institutions. The Office of

Federal/State Partnership supports councils by providing technical assistance and connectivity with

other NEH offices and federal agencies. If a federal disaster has been declared in a state or

jurisdiction, the council is invited to apply to NEH for emergency relief funding.

In 2020, NEH provided emergency relief funding to the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs

($30,000) in response to damages from a derecho and Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

($50,000) following Hurricane Laura. In 2021, NEH provided emergency relief funding to

Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities ($50,000) and Kentucky Humanities ($20,000) for flood

damages, and to Humanities Texas ($134,352) and Oklahoma Humanities ($50,000) for damages

caused by severe winter storms. In 2022, NEH granted two emergency supplement awards, one to

New Mexico Humanities Council ($30,000) to assess cultural heritage damage caused by the Calf

Canyon/Hermit’s Peak Wildfires, and a second to Kentucky Humanities ($150,000) after severe

flooding impacted cultural institutions in Appalachia. The supplements support disaster recovery

subawards, convenings of impacted cultural organizations, and a disaster preparedness workshop.

To support councils’ readiness for the damaging effects of natural disasters on their own operations

and those of other cultural organizations, the Office of Federal/State Partnership hosts disaster

preparedness webinars featuring representatives from the Federal Emergency Management

Agency, the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, NEH’s Division of Preservation and

Access, and councils with experience in cultural heritage disaster preparedness, mitigation, and

recovery.

Across the nation, state and jurisdictional humanities councils develop and fund public humanities

programs that provide historical, social, cultural, and philosophical context for climate issues.

Councils bring together humanities scholars, historians, scientists, and community members to

explore humanistic questions posed by climate change. With urgency and creativity, councils

support programs that increase public understanding of the environment and of the effects of the

climate crisis on individuals, communities, and cultural heritage resources.

Councils deliver a wide range of multimedia public humanities programs. Incorporating diverse

perspectives and elevating underrepresented voices, these programs examined topics in

environmental humanities, including resiliency, sustainability, and justice. Humanities New York

explores community and climate change through its program, Community Conversations. Scholars,

grantees, and participants examine how culture and science relate to one another in public

discourse and how that shapes the environmental movement today. The Fundación Puertorriqueña

de las Humanidades dedicated the second season of its podcast series, Humanidades Puerto Rico,

to the topic of built heritage. Throughout the season, the council discussed climate change,

preparing for its impact, preservation of the built environment, and reflected on relationships with

historic buildings. Oregon Humanities devoted the August 2021 issue of its magazine, Oregon

Humanities, to the topic of climate. Stories featured Oregonians taking action to confront the

climate crisis. Using humanities scholarship and individual experiences, the issue contextualized

current events affecting Oregonians, including destructive wildfires, drought, and record-breaking

temperatures. The magazine has subscribers in every county of the state and is distributed to all

Oregon libraries, high schools, and universities.

Through grantmaking, the state and jurisdictional humanities councils provide critical funding to

local organizations working to address climate change and environmental sustainability. These

funds support organizations in communities large and small, rural, and urban. In turn, they make

the humanities broadly accessible to the public, reaching audiences and communities that have

been historically underserved and underfunded by the humanities. For example, Rhode Island

Council for the Humanities awarded a grant to the Coalition Center for Environmental

Sustainability for its “Museum of Silenced Histories: Community Storytelling Circle.” The grant-

funded event created space for intergenerational members of Providence’s diverse and often

underrepresented communities to celebrate the autumn harvest through food, storytelling, and by

honoring the land. Humanities Guåhan (Guam) awarded a grant to Guåhan Sustainable Culture to

support Histories of Agriculture and Farming on Guåhan, an archival research and oral history

project. The project provides the island with knowledge of its agricultural history, to inform future

food sovereignty and environmental sustainability. In 2020 and 2021, the grantee published farmer

profiles in newspapers and interviews on YouTube, held community workshops, and had an

interactive in-person and virtual exhibit. This research and the online resources demonstrate how

the island’s agricultural past—and future—are rooted in its people and culture.

DIVISION OF PRESERVATION AND ACCESS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Budget

Request

Delta from

FY 2023

Preservation and Access

$19,500

$22,500

$22,000

($500)

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

Program Categories

• Humanities Collections and Reference Resources

• National Digital Newspaper Program

• Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections

• Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions

• Documenting Endangered Languages

• Preservation and Access Education and Training

• Research and Development

• Cultural and Community Resilience

Program Descriptions and Accomplishments

Advancements in technology promise to make cultural heritage materials available as never

before, opening tremendous possibilities for research, education, and public engagement in the

humanities. Equally exciting is the opportunity to deepen and diversify cultural heritage materials

in support of the multiplicity of human identities and experiences, as well as a more faithful and

nuanced understanding of the past. Central to realizing these possibilities is NEH’s Division of

Preservation and Access, which advances the preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage

collections and other source materials through project-based grants that support individual

repositories and the museums, archives, libraries, and cultural stewardship fields at large.

As the NEH division tasked with ensuring the longevity of cultural collections, Preservation and

Access supports programs that help protect collections from the corrosive effects of climate

change and its associated risks. Through Preservation and Access programs, cultural heritage

stewards find opportunities to undertake disaster planning, reduce energy use, lower

environmental impact, access conservation assistance, and address loss. Resilience and

sustainability are key tenets of cultural stewardship and the division’s work as well.

Humanities Collections and Reference Resources

NEH has long ensured that humanities researchers and the broader public can more easily find

and make use of cultural heritage collections. The Humanities Collections and Reference

Resources program offers implementation grants to support the digitization and description of

collections and the creation of new reference works, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Grants can be used for reformatting and aggregating humanities collections and datasets;

arranging and describing archives and manuscripts; and cataloging collections. Most of these

projects offer their collections and resources freely online, promoting engagement with primary

sources, a key component of information literacy education. Northern Arizona University

received an award to support the digitization of 400 rare and unique moving images documenting

the history of the Colorado Plateau and the American Southwest. The university library has led

regional efforts to develop best practices in working with tribal archives. Such efforts exemplify

the ways in which division-supported work can help advance equity for Indigenous and other

underserved communities.

The program’s subcategory, Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Foundations,

supports formative work such as planning and piloting. Drawing on collaborations between

humanities scholars and technical specialists, such projects help cultural and educational

institutions establish intellectual control of collections, develop plans and priorities for

digitization, solidify partnerships and strategic plans to create complex digital resources, or

produce preliminary versions of online collections or resources. For example, the division

awarded a grant to West Virginia University to plan a multi-institutional online portal aggregating

the personal papers of former members of the United States Congress, the product of which will

help strengthen Americans’ knowledge of constitutional governance and democracy. With the

overarching goal of making these primary sources easier to discover and use, the project team

prioritized material for inclusion, tested storage platforms, and built a pilot website. The

Foundations subcategory also supports diversification of cultural heritage by encouraging

partnerships between organizations from underserved communities and those with more extensive

collections management experience and resources. An award to Marygrove Conservancy in

Michigan supported a partnership with the Detroit Historical Society, which will contribute

expertise for the preservation and digitization of collections related to a contemporary American

authors lecture series that features Black writers and poets from 1989 to the present.

National Digital Newspaper Program

Newspapers have chronicled the daily life of citizens in towns and cities across the country for

centuries, helping to record the history of this nation. These newspapers provide invaluable

resources for documenting the civic, legal, historical, and cultural life of every region. The NDNP

is a partnership between NEH and the Library of Congress, which produces the Chronicling

America website (Chronicling America « Library of Congress (loc.gov)), a digital repository of

historical American newspapers. More than 20 million pages have been digitized, with many

millions to follow. The selected pages are accompanied by brief essays summarizing the history

of production, content, and circulation of each newspaper, as well as a directory of all newspapers

published in the United States from 1690 to the present.

The roots of this project go back to the 1980s, when NEH support enabled organizations and

institutions in 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico to

locate, catalog, and microfilm their historical newspaper holdings and create a centralized

bibliographic record of all newspaper titles published since 1690. In 2004, NEH and the Library of

Congress embarked on a project to make such resources digitally accessible and signed a

memorandum of understanding—renewed in 2009, 2014, and 2019—establishing a partnership to

create the NDNP. Under the terms of this partnership, NEH provides grants to an organization in

each state and territory to digitize titles published between 1690 and 1963 and prepare searchable

files that the Library of Congress maintains permanently online.

A complex undertaking, the NDNP is being implemented in phases. To date, the division has

provided support for projects in all 50 states and three of the five jurisdictions. In recent years, the

program has expanded to include content published between 1690 and 1963 and 22 languages in

addition to English—including Dakota, German, Tagalog, Spanish, Danish, Hungarian,

Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish—and in doing so opened access to the nation’s

vibrant ethnic and immigrant press.

Much work remains to ensure that this longstanding commitment to newspaper heritage reflects the

coverage, depth, and diversity of the nation’s history. In FY 2021, Rhode Island contributed

Chronicling America’s earliest content by adding pages from the Newport Gazette, which dates to

1777. The recent additions of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to the program promises to

further strengthen 18th-century content, while other contributors are increasing the presence of

historically underrepresented groups. Indiana will add to the growing collection of African

American newspapers available in Chronicling America with its contribution of the Gary American

and other early 20th-century African American titles. Arizona will also contribute five African

American titles, including issues dating from 1930 to 1935 from the Arizona Gleam, published by

Ayra Hackett, the only Black female newspaper owner in Arizona at that time. Alaska will add to

the site’s African American content with the Alaska Spotlight, the state’s first Black-owned

newspaper. Alaska will contribute additional titles covering the mid-20th century, including the

civil rights achievements of Alaska Natives and labor groups.

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections

This program encourages sustainable, energy-conscious solutions to mitigate deterioration in, and

prolong the useful life of, collections in cultural heritage repositories. The program also helps

strengthen institutional resilience in the face of disasters caused by natural and human activity. A

2020 survey report funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission titled

Small & Diverse Archival Organization Needs Assessment Project found that building issues,

space planning and usage, building environments, fire safety, water safety, and security pose

significant barriers to the long-term sustainability of collections. The report goes on to single out

this program as an important area of grant-funded support that can help address these urgent

needs.

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections planning grants of up to $50,000 allow institutions to

gather interdisciplinary teams of professionals to explore cost-effective and environmentally

sensitive strategies for the protection of their humanities collections. With NEH support, the

Oneida Indian Nation has gathered a team that includes specialists in conservation and

preservation to develop recommendations for improving sustainability, energy efficiency, and

security for historical documents, textiles, baskets, and other artifacts in their holdings.

In FY 2023, NEH introduced a new funding category to support small and mid-sized institutions

through awards of up to $0.1 million as they implement discrete preventive conservation

measures such as reorganizing collections by material type or employing passive means of

temperature and humidity control. While still informed by a general preservation assessment,

these smaller Implementation Level I awards come with less stringent expectations for

interdisciplinary planning, will better meet the staffing, time, and budgetary capacity of smaller

organizations and extend the adoption of environmentally conscious conservation practices in the

field.

Implementation Level II awards of up to $0.350 million provide significant assistance to

organizations seeking to implement preventive conservation measures. Such implementation

projects often focus on lighting and climate control systems in collections and exhibition spaces.

Glessner House Museum in Chicago, for example, is completing a project to install a geothermal

system in its historic house. This system will eliminate dependence on natural gas and save 30 to

60 percent on heating costs and 20 to 50 percent on cooling costs over conventional systems, and

moreover, it is being installed with minimal impact on the historic fabric of the house and its

significant collections. Other organizations have added insulation and more tightly sealed their

buildings to enhance the performance of existing systems and decrease exposure to pests and

fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity.

Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions

The 2022 National Census of History Organizations, conducted by the American Association of

State and Local History with NEH funding, found that history organizations are present in nearly

every community across the country, including places underserved by arts and culture

organizations. While these organizations are important community assets, they also lack resources

themselves. Fully 80 percent of the history organizations in the United States have budgets under

$0.2 million, and only one-fifth of nonprofit, stand-alone history organizations are likely to be run

by full-time staff.

NEH’s Preservation Assistance Grants are designed to support under-resourced collecting

organizations. Small and mid-sized libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations may

apply for awards of up to $10,000 for preservation assessments; on-site consultation with

preservation professionals on specific issues such as disaster preparedness and sustainable

environmental conditions; staff and volunteer education through online and in-person workshops;

and preservation supplies and equipment. Many of these institutions steward collections that

reflect underrepresented communities and focus on a diverse range of topics, such as rural life,

industrial history, and civil rights.

In the two decades since the program began, NEH has awarded over 2,200 grants to institutions in

all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each year, an

average of 30 percent of Preservation Assistance Grants are awarded to institutions that have

never received a grant from NEH. Additionally, between 2008-2022, the Preservation Assistance

Grant program received 14 percent of all submissions from first-time NEH applicants, strong

evidence that this grant program extends the agency’s reach. A significant number of previous

award recipients have also gone on to compete successfully for grants from other agency

programs.

These relatively small awards have an outsized impact on recipients, allowing organizations to

build institutional capacity through training and improved collections care and to prioritize

preservation work. The Museum of the Aleutians is using its first Preservation Assistance Grant

to update its environmental monitoring program, empowering staff to develop safer display and

transportation practices for archeological and ethnographic collections that tell the story of the

Aleutian Islands and their people. Xavier University, a Louisiana HBCU whose holdings include

the Charles F. Heartman Manuscripts of Slavery Collection, is receiving a preservation needs

assessment designed to help the university reduce the impact of future hurricanes and high

humidity. Finally, the Delaware Public Archives is receiving training to enhance collection care

practices for records focused on civic life, including the papers of Etta Wilson (1883–1971),

executive secretary of the Delaware Parent-Teacher Association. Archives staff plans to share the

knowledge it gains with the many municipalities and citizens it consults with on records

preservation.

Dynamic Language Infrastructure - Documenting Endangered Languages Senior Research

Grants

This program supports the creation of such tools as bilingual dictionaries, grammars, and text

collections that document languages threatened with extinction. Of the 6,000 to 7,000 languages

currently spoken around the globe, at least 3,000 are endangered, including hundreds of Native

American languages. These lesser-known languages constitute an irreplaceable linguistic treasure

for scholars seeking to understand the nature of language or study the cultures and natural systems

of the region in which a particular language is spoken. To address this issue, NEH and the NSF

established a joint special initiative known as Dynamic Language Infrastructure—Documenting

Endangered Languages Senior Research Grants. Grants of up to $0.450 million support fieldwork

and other activities that make it possible to record, document, and archive endangered languages.

In documentation projects involving endangered languages, linguists typically work closely with

native speakers, many of whom are interested in learning more about their own cultural heritage

and are eager to pass on information about their language to younger generations. This work helps

promote equity for these Indigenous language communities. An award to the Standing Rock

Sioux Tribe continues the construction of an interactive and fully searchable digital archive of

historical recordings and texts made in fluent Western Dakota and Lakota, two dialects of the

Indigenous language of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Standing Rock Language and

Culture Institute has also engaged community-based language experts to document these dialects,

augment historical recordings, and build capacity for an archive training program. Using the

NEH-funded content management platform Mukurtu, the project provides agency and sovereignty

to tribal language experts and their community.

Preservation and Access Education and Training

This program ensures humanities stewards at every stage in their careers are prepared to care for

collections and meet the demands of a changing field. By supporting graduate conservation

programs, preservation field services, and continuing education initiatives, Education and Training

grants promote an inclusive preservation training pipeline and help practitioners develop skills in

such priority areas as equitable and culturally appropriate collections care, disaster resilience, and

solutions for at-risk collections.

The results of recent encouragement for projects that increase the diversity of Preservation and

Access professionals and expand training to underrepresented and Indigenous communities have

been impressive. The Division is currently supporting the National Breath of Life Archival Institute

for Indigenous Language as it increases its capacity to offer community archives training programs.

An award to a nonprofit digitization center, Cultural Heritage Imaging, is taking an equitable

partnership approach to preservation training by collaborating with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands

Association, the Huliauapa’a, and the Passamaquoddy Tribal Government to develop workshops

for Indigenous culture bearers on advanced computational photography of collections. These

initiatives empower communities that have received less support in the past to protect their

vulnerable humanities collections.

Other awardees aim to reduce barriers to entry in the field and create educational opportunities for

members of underrepresented groups. Harvard Art Museum is offering three paid 12-month junior

apprenticeships with the goal of equipping aspiring conservators from historically excluded

populations with the skills and experience they need to apply to a Master’s-level conservation

program. In Colorado, the Denver Public Library is implementing a paid post-baccalaureate

program that is also designed for underrepresented communities, with the goal of providing

apprentices with hands-on special collections and digital archives experience.

For all preservation professionals, the Division supports preservation field services organizations,

which offer trainings that respond to the needs of the field. These organizations have a long history

of conducting emergency preparedness training initiatives and have recently used NEH support to

redouble their efforts in the face of increasing climate-related threats. For example, with grant

support, the Northeast Document Conservation Center is continuing its free, 24/7 emergency

hotline for organizations recovering from disasters and offering additional disaster preparedness

workshops in high-risk areas across the Atlantic coast.

Preservation and Access Research and Development

The Division’s Research and Development program addresses major challenges in preserving or

providing access to humanities collections and resources. Funded projects formulate new ways to

preserve materials of critical importance to the nation’s cultural heritage—from fragile artifacts,

manuscripts, and analog recordings to digital assets subject to technological obsolescence—as

well as to develop advanced modes of organizing, searching, and using such materials.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is a hallmark of the Research and Development program, which

encourages cooperation between cultural heritage professionals and specialists in preservation and

other technical or scientific fields. Tier I grants of up to $0.1 million support planning and

preliminary work leading to large-scale research and development projects as well as stand-alone

basic research projects, such as case studies, experiments, and the development of software tools.

Tier II awards of up to $0.350 million lead to the development of national standards, best

practices, methodologies, and work processes for preserving and creating access to humanities

collections.

Several recently funded projects are investigating the impacts of climate change on heritage

collections, along with developing responses to advance sustainability and resilience. For

example, an award to the Midwest Art Conservation Center is developing preliminary methods

for assessing emergency preparedness needs for public art collections susceptible to natural

disasters such as floods, wildfires, and earthquakes. The Foundation for Advancement in

Conservation continues to develop Sustainability Tools in Cultural Heritage, a life cycle

assessment tool that assists cultural heritage professionals in making educated, sustainable

choices to lower the environmental impact of their work.

The preservation of audiovisual resources continues to be a priority of the Division, as these

materials are particularly susceptible to environmentally driven deterioration. One such

audiovisual medium is the digital videotape, which has been used by many small and mid-sized

heritage organizations to record oral histories, news broadcasts, home movies, and performances.

An award to Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound supports the creation of open-source

software and training documentation for the preservation of such videotapes.

Finally, several of the Division’s Research and Development awards promote equity by

supporting work that enhances the preservation of and access to humanities collections for under-

represented communities. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is leading an international team that

includes curators and native artisans from Mexico to use a novel scientific methodology to

identify plant and animal products in works of art prevalent in non-European cultures. An award

to the University of Hawaii at Manoa will enable the university to work in partnership with the

American Council of the Blind and the Helen Keller National Center to improve methods for

audio description of heritage materials, which is the primary mode of access for millions of

people with blindness or vision impairment.

Cultural and Community Resilience

Launched in FY 2023, this program supports community-based efforts to mitigate natural disasters

and COVID-19 pandemic impacts, especially in disadvantaged communities. Projects safeguard

cultural resources for the future and foster cultural resilience by identifying, documenting, and/or

collecting cultural heritage and community experience.

Cultural and Community Resilience projects contribute to the continuity of cultural heritage and its

availability for future generations through community-based projects that empower people to

define, collect, and use cultural and historical resources. This program also recognizes the

importance of documenting contemporary experiences with natural disasters and pandemics and of

deepening our understanding of their social, economic, and emotional impact on individuals and

communities. Projects encompass inclusive and equitable practices that could include participatory

archiving, recording oral histories, documenting traditional knowledge, planning for rapid response

collecting, and developing shared stewardship arrangements.

DIVISION OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Public Programs

$14,000

$15,800

$15,400

($400)

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

Program Categories

• Public Humanities Projects

• Media Projects

• Digital Projects for the Public

• Public Impact Projects at Smaller Organizations

Program Descriptions and Accomplishments

The Division of Public Programs is where the work of NEH meets the American public. Through

the Division’s support of museum exhibitions, documentary films, podcasts, historic sites, library

discussion programs, and online games, it reaches tens of millions of Americans every year, and

in every state and territory. The leveraging effects of an NEH grant enable public-serving

institutions to raise significant additional funding and to create projects of incredibly broad reach.

The Division supports many accessible projects across the country that meld humanities

scholarship with imaginative formats to engage public audiences of all ages and circumstances in

serious questions about history, culture, and American democracy.

Public Humanities Projects

Awards for Public Humanities Projects provide critical support to museums, historic sites,

libraries, community centers, and other cultural institutions, enabling the development of

exhibitions of artistic, cultural, and historical artifacts; interpretation of significant American

historic sites; presentation of reading and film discussion series; and creation of lifelong learning

activities. Currently, more than 200 available public projects funded through this program are

stimulating millions of Americans to think critically about the world around them and to instill a

deeper understanding of fundamental questions facing contemporary society.

Funded projects support the agency’s core priority of advancing equity and supporting underserved

communities. “Here, Now and Always,” which opened at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

in Santa Fe, New Mexico in June 2022, is a comprehensive reinstallation of a permanent exhibition

that explores the history and culture of the Native peoples of the Southwest. Advised by a vast

network of scholars and community members representing fifty tribal groups, the exhibition takes

in a range of fields including history, philosophy, environmental studies, language, art, economics,

and archaeology, and explores topics including ancestors, home, community, trade, language,

resilience, and art.

At the historic home of photographer Alice Austen, interpretive materials describe the ways in

which her work explored the boundaries of gender roles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

drawing parallels with current debates about conformity and gender identity. The Heard

Museum’s “Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories” documents the

government’s forced attempts to assimilate Native American children. Similarly, the traveling

exhibition “Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Trouble & Resilience in the American South” uses images

captured by a small-town photographer to explore the iniquities of the Jim Crow era in

Mississippi, enabling audiences to understand the antecedents of modern struggles around equity,

diversity, and social justice.

Funding a mix of large and small, and urban and rural, organizations contributes to the Division’s

goals of achieving equity in audience reach and sharing a diversity of stories. Grants awarded in

support of projects conducted by large, national organizations often facilitate broad

dissemination. An example of a project with such broad impact is the Library of America’s

discussion program Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters Today. This

Division-supported project, launched in September 2020, employed the African American poetic

tradition to help illuminate the social, cultural, and political history of the United States. Using a

newly published anthology of works by over 100 poets from the 18th century to the present,

scholars guided audiences through substantive discussions of struggles for freedom, the evolution

of identity, and shifting historical memory. The project also included a multimedia website,

supplemental educational materials for educators, and sub-awards to 50 libraries in 24 states

enabling them to conduct related programing on a local level.

The Division makes grants supporting the agency’s other core priorities of strengthening our

democracy and confronting the climate crisis. Humanities Discussions grants, for example,

frequently go to projects aimed at helping audiences understand questions of civics, government,

and democracy. “Scranton’s Story, Our Nation’s Story,” from the University of Scranton, offered

a series of public discussions in 2021 that invited participants to reflect on the relation between

freedom and civic responsibility in our nation’s history. Also in 2021, Aquila Theatre toured “The

Warrior Chorus: American Democracy.” Audiences drew connections between ancient Greek

texts and live questions about democratic citizenship in the 21st century. Other Division-supported

projects have helped audiences understand their relationship to the environment. For example,

from October 2019 to January 2020 an exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, “Scrap

Yard: Innovators of Recycling,” told the story of one of the ancestors of modern-day recycling: the

scrap yard industry. “Scrappers,” as the industry’s workers were called, created an infrastructure

that allowed for the reuse of discarded materials like metal and fabric and paved the way for

today’s environmentally focused recycling programs.

Media Projects

The Division supports a wide variety of media projects that convey excellent humanities

scholarship to millions of people via broadcast television, radio, video streams, and podcasts.

NEH grantees have been instrumental in helping to overcome the restrictions of the COVID-19

pandemic by presenting a range of online programs, thereby providing entertaining and

informative programing to the American public during an especially challenging time.

Media projects supported by NEH are captivating, widely distributed, thoroughly researched, and

thoughtful in their presentation. NEH makes a unique contribution to nonfiction film and radio

programming by fostering close collaboration between media producers and scholars, who work

together to create programs that help bring the insights of the humanities to a broad and diverse

range of the American public.

The Division has funded several high-profile films that have examined Black history, including

issues of racism, prejudice, and inequity in America. Storming Caesar’s Palace, which premiered

at the BlackStar festival in Philadelphia in August 2022, tells the story of “a band of ordinary

mothers who launched one of the most extraordinary, yet forgotten, feminist, anti-poverty

movements in U.S. history, providing a blueprint today for an equitable future.” The film will air

on PBS in 2023. The American Diplomat, which aired on PBS in 2022, explores the lives and

legacies of three African American ambassadors who pushed past historical and institutional

racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments.

The Division has also supported projects exploring more recent trends in Black culture. In

February 2021, PBS broadcast Mr. SOUL!, a documentary about pioneering talk-show host Ellis

Haizlip and his television program SOUL!, which was the first nationally broadcast all-Black

variety show on public television. The documentary, featuring many rare clips, illuminates the

cultural contributions of major figures in Black literature, poetry, music, and politics from the late

1960s and early 1970s. In March 2021, Mr. SOUL! won an NAACP Image Award. The film was

also short-listed for an Academy Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

The Division provided significant support to the Center for Asian American Media for its

documentary film, Asian Americans, coproduced with PBS station WETA. This five-hour film

series engages viewers in explorations of the evolving identity of, and prejudice experienced by,

the nation’s fastest-growing racial group, Asian Americans. The series premiered on PBS in

prime time in May 2020 and was made available to 98 percent of American households via

broadcast and online streaming. Following a spike in violence against Asian Americans in 2021,

PBS rebroadcast the film and provided easy access to the series online. In 2021, Asian Americans

won a prestigious Peabody Award.

Films supported by the Division have examined the politics and culture of the 1960s and 1970s,

including the roots of political issues and movements that remain relevant today. Crip Camp, for

example, looks at a groundbreaking summer camp that galvanized a group of teens with

disabilities to help build a movement. The documentary was nominated for a 2021 Academy

Award. 9to5: The Story of a Movement, which aired on PBS, chronicles the movement by women

office workers to achieve better pay, more advancement opportunities, and an end to sexual

harassment. The First Angry Man is a documentary about political outsider Howard Jarvis and the

California property-tax revolt he led in 1978. Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno

uncovers the story of Maria Moreno, the first female farm worker in America to be hired as a

union organizer. The film received a 2020 Imagen Award for Best Informational Program as part

of the PBS/Latino Public Broadcasting Voces series. In 2021, the Division funded a biographical

documentary film, currently in production, of the public intellectual and author William F.

Buckley Jr. A recent series of short documentaries on the history of photography, The Bigger

Picture, includes a 2022 episode on the iconic “Blue Marble” photograph: a symbol and catalyst

for activists confronting the climate crisis during the 1970s.

NEH-supported films have also examined the lives of influential figures in American arts and

culture. The Division funded nationally-broadcast biographies of the neurologist Oliver Sacks, the

journalist Walter Winchell, the writer L. Frank Baum (best known for The Wizard of Oz), the

singer Marian Anderson, the author Flannery O’Connor, and the author and disability-rights

advocate Helen Keller. A documentary on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, creator of the popular

Little House series, attracted more than one million viewers, and an additional 283,000 streams,

when it premiered nationally in December 2020. The film chronicles how Wilder transformed her

uncertain and difficult childhood into beloved children’s classics, and, in doing so, contributed to

lasting myths about the settling of the American West. The film’s coproducer, public television

station WNET, created extensive educational resources, aligned with topics typically taught in

United States history classes, to accompany the documentary.

Public radio and podcasts are popular formats for audiences to engage with rich humanities

content. Division-supported radio programs explore the lives of important individuals, historical

events, and ideas. Recent projects include Radio Diaries—an independent production that airs on

NPR’s All Things Considered—that examines “extraordinary stories of ordinary life.” The

program is especially creative in its use of archival audio and its choice of historical topics,

including the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 and the life of Nelson Mandela. Radio Diaries also

received a grant funded through NEH’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act

appropriation that will document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on different

communities across the country.

Subtitle is another popular and successful NEH-funded radio and podcast series that aired in

2021–2022. These one-hour programs were broadcast as part of the weekly The World series,

carried by over 200 NPR affiliates as well as standalone podcasts. Looking at regional accents,

new words, and international topics, the series offered keen insights into language, linguistics,

and speech as it explored a wide range of topics, including the development of podcasts in various

locales. Podcasts of Subtitle have been downloaded more than 200,000 times.

Radio programs have also explored regional histories, including underrepresented people,

communities, and events. Points South, a podcast on Southern history produced by the Oxford

American, has included episodes on the poet Anne Spencer and on the 1898 Wilmington

Massacre: a violent attack on the city's thriving African American community, one of a series of

coups that took place after the Civil War. History Colorado’s Lost Highways podcast has

examined Western history, including such subjects as lynching and protection of tribal burial

sites.

Digital Projects for the Public

The Division’s Digital Projects for the Public supports the development and production of

humanities projects that make use of a wide array of digital technologies and platforms, including

mobile applications, websites, digital games, interactive kiosks, and augmented and virtual reality

experiences. Projects funded in this program reach a diverse range of audiences and offer those

without direct access to cultural institutions a fresh, innovative, and low barrier-of-entry way to

explore humanities content such as state and local history, civics, Indigenous culture, religious

landmarks, military history, and music. The Division continues to see substantial interest in this

area as educators and other audiences seek out projects that allow for deep humanities

engagement without requiring in-person attendance and institutions use digital tools to expand

their storytelling.

Two new Division-supported digital projects combine audio recordings, visualizations, and recent

scholarship to chronicle America’s musical heritage. Carnegie Hall’s Timeline of African

American Music traces the four-hundred-year evolution of African American musical genres from

its earliest folk traditions through today. Hearing the Americas, from George Mason University,

focuses on the first decades of recorded music, from 1898 to 1925, when popular music was in its

infancy and genres were fluid.

Digital games continue to provide valuable humanities experiences. Mission US by WNET

Thirteen and Race to Ratify by iCivics, which offer compelling ways to explore U.S. history in

both formal and informal learning contexts, have each reached millions of unique players since

their respective launches. Division-supported educational games have focused on events as varied

as the American Revolution, the Trail of Tears, the Civil Rights Movement, westward expansion,

and the ratification of the Constitution. During the pandemic, these games experienced a surge in

their already well-established user base, as educators sought out robust digital resources to help

sustain student engagement and offer different modes of learning. Similarly, the award-winning

Walden, a game from the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California, saw a

significant increase in demand during the pandemic.

Historic sites, museums, and other cultural institutions are using virtual and augmented reality to

reveal the past—how a house, neighborhood, or landscape would have looked two centuries or

two thousand years ago—without disturbing current structures or the environment. San

Francisco’s Buried History from Exploratorium pairs photographs, interviews, and augmented

reality with a walking audio tour of the city to reveal buried ships, underground creeks, and

sacred Indigenous shell mounds. The Cahokia Mounds Museum in Collinsville, Illinois, created a

mobile app with augmented reality to help on-site visitors visualize the structures of the ancient

Mississippian settlement. A website with educational materials also lets remote visitors explore

the site.

Division-funded projects that use virtual or augmented reality include Reconstruction 360º from

South Carolina ETV, a web and on-site mobile application providing tours of Reconstruction-era

sites in South Carolina; Exploring the Cajun Roots: Augmented Reality Tour of Acadia History

from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, an augmented reality tour and 360º panoramic

website of 19th-century Vermilionville in Lafayette, Louisiana; River of Time: A Game for

Community Engagement from Grand Rapids Public Museum, a self-guided mobile game that

explores the history of the Grand River; and VR Hoover Dam: A Virtual Reality Game Exploring

the History and Construction of an American Icon from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth,

an educational experience chronicling the Hoover Dam’s construction.

Public Impact Projects at Smaller Organizations

Launched in FY 2023, Public Impact Projects at Smaller Organizations supports America’s small

and mid-sized museums, especially those from underserved communities, which must often get

by on scarce resources and small staffs. Small and mid-sized museums across the United States

play a key role in serving their local communities as their partners and as keepers of their history

and culture. This new program, featuring a simplified application process, provides much needed

support to these smaller organizations by enhancing their capacity and strengthening their

humanities programming. The program supports, among other activities, consultations with

humanities scholars or public interpretive specialists.

DIVISION OF RESEARCH PROGRAMS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Research

$15,000

$17,500

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

Program Categories

Programs Supporting Individual Research

• Fellowships

• Public Scholars

• Summer Stipends

• Awards for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving

Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities

Programs Supporting Scholarly Collaboration

• Scholarly Editions and Translations

• Collaborative Research

• Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions

• Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research

Programs with Strategic Partners

• Documenting Endangered Languages Fellowships (with the NSF)

• Advanced Social Science Research on Japan (with the Japan-U.S. Friendship

Commission)

Program Descriptions and Accomplishments

Developing knowledge and advancing understanding in the humanities are core strategic goals of

NEH and are at the heart of the Division of Research Programs. The Research Division seeks to

attain these goals through its investment in the work of individual scholars; in long-term, complex

projects carried out by teams of scholars or at research centers worldwide; and in work with

strategic partners.

Awards made through the Division support projects in all areas of the humanities. These include

traditional disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, classics, religion, and archaeology as

well as more recent cross-disciplinary approaches including race and gender studies and

environmental humanities. While this scholarly work can sometimes seem distant from everyday

life, humanities research provides the context for almost every important discussion in the public

forum. As an example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many in the reading public turned to

NEH-supported researchers for a reliable history of how pandemics develop and spread (Billy

Smith, Ship of Death) and how the last pandemic influenced American literary and cultural life

(Elizabeth Outka, Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature). Similarly,

following the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, the public and policy makers

discovered that a humanities scholar had literally “written the book” on the Taliban (David

Edwards, Before Taliban). And in a landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized gay

marriage nationwide, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited Nancy Cott’s NEH-supported book, Public

Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation, in the Court’s majority opinion. NEH Research

awards made to Smith, Outka, Edwards, Cott, and thousands of other humanities researchers have

enabled Americans to deepen their knowledge, participate in discussions that affect everyday life,

and become better-informed citizens.

NEH-supported researchers are among the most innovative and productive scholars in the nation,

leading the way in advancing the historical and cultural roots of the core principles of democracy.

For example, the Division continues to support teams of scholars in their efforts to document and

make easily accessible the words of U.S. Presidents, such as Thomas Jefferson and Dwight D.

Eisenhower; prominent public figures, such as Frederick Douglass and Jane Addams; and literary

intellectuals, such as Emily Dickinson and Willa Cather. NEH also provides fellowships to

individuals writing books on the origins of our democracy, e.g. to Aaron Hall for “The Founding

Rules: Slavery and the Creation of American Constitutionalism, 1787-1889”; on the foundations of

our civil society, e.g. to Sarah Stitzlein for “The Role of Truth and Honesty in Improving

Democracy” and to Jeremy Fortier for “How Rational Does Democracy Need to Be?”; and the

threats to both, e.g. to Jennifer Forestal for “The Shape of Democracy: Building Political Spaces in

a Digital Age”, which looks at how social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter

hold both promise and perils for American democracy.

The Division’s engagement with understanding civil rights, racial justice, and institutional

discrimination supports the priorities for advancing equity and for addressing the needs of

underserved communities. Projects in racial and ethnic studies have constructively drawn on

traditional archival research to uncover new perspectives on race in America. For example,

Jeffrey Stewart, a professor of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara,

received fellowship support to write The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke. Locke, a prominent

Black intellectual from Philadelphia, became the driving force behind the Harlem Renaissance,

and Stewart received the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in biography for this work. Candacy Taylor, an

independent scholar living in New York City, received an award from NEH to research and write

The Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America. Using

travel as her frame of reference, Taylor documents Blacks’ struggles for equality in 20th-century

America. W. Caleb McDaniel, professor of history at Rice University, received support to write

Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, which examined how

a former slave used the U.S. court system in the 19th century to win restitution for her time as a

slave. McDaniel received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in history for his NEH-supported work.

The Division has also long served as a source of funding for new fields of inquiry in the

humanities, including medical humanities and environmental humanities. Division grantees have

used creative approaches to demonstrate how the humanities play an important role in discussions

of climate change. For example, independent scholar Sarah Dry received NEH support for Waters

of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unraveled the Mysteries of Our Oceans,

Atmosphere, and Ice Sheets and Made the Planet Whole. Drawing on the history of science, earth

sciences, and biography, Dry tells the stories of the scientists who have studied our hydrosphere,

atmosphere, and cryosphere; in doing so, she helps us to appreciate the earth as an interconnected

system and humanizes the scientists behind most climate change research. Mary Alice Haddad,

the John E. Andrus Professor of Government at Wesleyan University, used NEH funding to

publish Effective Advocacy: Lessons from East Asian Environmentalists. Using her background in

comparative politics and environmental sciences, Haddad seeks to explain how and why the

environmental movement in Asia developed differently from that in the United States and

Europe.

Programs Supporting Individual Research

The primary building block of the humanities can be found in the work of the individual scholar,

and, accordingly, awards to individual researchers have been a priority for NEH since the

agency’s inception. Today, the support of individual scholars is met through four programs in the

Division of Research Programs: Fellowships, Summer Stipends, Public Scholars, and Awards for

Faculty at HSIs, HBCUs, and TCUs.

Fellowships and Summer Stipends Program

The NEH Fellowships and Summer Stipends programs support individual scholars pursuing

advanced humanities research, providing recipients time to conduct research leading to

publication. Offering stipends between two and 12 months, both programs reach a wide range of

scholars in diverse settings, from colleges and universities to research institutes to independent

scholars without teaching appointments. In collaboration with the Mellon Foundation, the NEH

Fellowships program has also engaged in a special initiative to encourage digital publication

formats in addition to print publications. Products of both programs are intended for scholarly as

well as general audiences.

NEH grantees produce award-winning scholarship that shapes popular and academic engagement

concerning vital public topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice, America’s civic

principles, and economic and environmental challenges. For example, John Eicher (Pennsylvania

State University, Altoona) crafted a history of the influenza epidemic of 1918–1920, providing

useful context for understanding the COVID-19 pandemic. Bobby J. Smith II (University of

Illinois) investigated the importance of food-related politics in the Civil Rights Movement of the

1960s. Jon Schaff (Northern State University) probed the foundations of America’s civil order by

comparing the political philosophies of Jefferson, Hamilton, and Lincoln. And archaeologist

Heather Wholey (West Chester University) addressed concerns about environmental

sustainability by studying threats to cultural heritage along the shores of Delaware Bay due to the

rising sea level.

Public Scholars

The Division of Research Programs is committed to bringing the insights of the humanities to the

American public and to international audiences. The Public Scholars program supports nonfiction

books in the humanities that hold strong appeal for curious general readers, regardless of their

familiarity with recent scholarship. This program democratizes knowledge by bringing the

humanities out of the academy and to the general reading public. The program is intended to spur

nonacademic writers to deepen their research, while also encouraging academic writers to

broaden their audience. Journalist Kevin Sack, for example, was recently awarded a grant in

support of his book-in-progress on the history of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church

in Charleston, South Carolina. The book, which he expects to publish with Penguin/Random

House, will show the role of the Black church in resisting oppression through 200 years of

American history. Historian Elizabeth Fenn at the University of Colorado, Boulder, won NEH

support to write Sacagawea’s World: Window on the American West, which will use the events of

one Native American woman’s life to narrate a new history of the Northern Plains, Northern

Rockies, and Pacific Northwest. Matthew Delmont of Dartmouth College received an award for

Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and

Abroad, due to be published by Viking. His book will be based on extensive research in African

American newspapers and will give equal weight to the fight against Nazism abroad and the

struggle against white supremacy at home.

Awards for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving

Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities

In response to several Presidential Executive Orders, NEH supports communities that are

underserved by the humanities by providing research opportunities for faculty and staff members

at HBCUs, HSIs, and TCUs. The Awards for Faculty program provides flexible grants designed

to serve the unique needs of faculty and staff at these institutions; in particular, the program

allows recipients, many of whom have demanding teaching, mentoring, and service

responsibilities, to maintain and develop their credentials as scholars. The program supports a

variety of humanities research efforts that lead not only to publication, but also to revised

undergraduate course offerings or institutional or community goals. Awards have supported work

on a wide variety of topics by scholars from a range of institutions. In FY 2020, for example,

Mary Barr, an assistant professor of sociology at Kentucky State University, received an award to

conduct research on the history of the North Shore Summer Project, a 1965 collaboration between

civil rights groups and women’s organizations in Chicago’s northern suburbs working to address

housing discrimination in those communities. In FY 2021, Christine Ami, an associate professor

at Diné College (Arizona), received an award to write a book on the cultural importance of sheep

herding and butchering to the Diné (Navajo) people. And Valerie Martinez, an assistant professor

of history at Our Lady of the Lake University (San Antonio), was awarded a grant to research and

write a book about Latina servicewomen in World War II.

Programs Supporting Scholarly Collaboration

Modern scholarly endeavors increasingly require the collaboration of multiple researchers

working across a wide range of specialties, or scholars working together in research centers and

archives. The Research Division nurtures such collaborative efforts through four programs:

Scholarly Editions and Translations, Collaborative Research, Fellowship Programs at

Independent Research Institutions, and Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research grants.

Scholarly Editions and Translations

Scholarly Editions and Translations grants support collaborative teams editing and translating

foundational humanities texts that are vital to civics education and to a broader knowledge of the

country’s history and its constitutional principles. Scholarly editions projects involve literary,

musical, philosophical, and historical materials. Nearly half of NEH-funded projects are in the

fields of U.S. history and literature. Many of these works are published in print editions, but

increasingly they are available in digital formats as well, which enables greater access by scholars

as well as the public. Recent grants have supported editions of the papers of major political

figures such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Addams, and

Martin Luther King Jr.; the works of philosophers Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth; inventor

Thomas Edison; and literary figures Mark Twain, novelist Catherine Maria Sedgwick, and

African American author Charles W. Chesnutt. Other teams of researchers are preparing editions

of documents important to the nation’s history. For example, NEH has supported “The

Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution and the Adoption of the Bill of

Rights” project at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which is collecting and publishing the

documentary record of the debate over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of

Rights. The Freedman and Southern Society Project at the University of Maryland in College

Park published the documentary history of the experiences of four million African American

freedmen after the Civil War. These documents provide an incomparable record of liberation and

the persistent search for lasting equality.

Collaborative Research

Collaborative Research grants support teams pursuing a range of projects: international

collaborations, scholarly conferences, multi-authored publications, and scholarly digital projects.

Whether team members work within one field or across disciplines, within one institution or

across multiple institutions, within the humanities or in tandem with the social or natural sciences,

Collaborative Research awardees harness multiple perspectives and areas of expertise to deepen

our understanding of the humanities. For example, the Center for Bioethics and Medical

Humanities at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) received a grant to develop

a digital archive and print publication on the history of the Mississippi Lunatic Asylum, the site of

the largest institutional burial ground in the United States. Building on the work of archaeologists,

this interdisciplinary team of historians, ethicists, anthropologists, and literary and legal scholars

at UMMC, Millsaps College, and Jackson State University is conducting archival and oral history

research that will shed new light on the history of mental illness and disability, institutionalized

care, and health care inequities. This work will inform current efforts seeking justice for the

disabled and people of color in this region.

Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions

Grants awarded under the NEH Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions

program support residential fellowships at major U.S. research centers located at home and

abroad, as well as fellowships awarded under the auspices of U.S. organizations that facilitate

international research. The program recognizes that intellectual exchange and collaboration are

vital to advance research in the humanities. NEH funding provides American scholars with

opportunities to conduct research in U.S.-based research centers as well as in China, India,

Turkey, Greece, Israel, and other parts of the world where support and access might otherwise be

difficult, if not impossible. NEH supports institutions such as the Linda Hall Library in Kansas

City, Missouri, and the Center for Jewish History in New York City. These partnerships expand

the access of American scholars across the globe to important research collections and scholarly

communities, and advance American cultural diplomacy goals in many key regions.

Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research Program

The Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research awards are supporting scholars conducting

empirical field research to answer significant questions in the humanities. Archaeology and

ethnography are important methodologies that provide observational and experiential data on

human history and culture. Most fieldwork of this nature is supported by science and social

science funders, which disadvantages humanities scholars in archaeological and ethnographic

disciplines and diminishes the influence of humanistic thought on the understanding of human

behavior in the past and present. In FY 2022, a team from the University of Colorado led by

Professor Susan Thomas received a grant to conduct an ethnographic study of the multi-ethnic

musical landscape of Pueblo, Colorado. Christopher DeCorse, a professor of anthropology at

Syracuse University, was funded to conduct archaeological excavations at the first English fort in

Africa, established on the Ghanaian coast in 1631.

Programs with Strategic Partners

NEH’s system of peer review is widely respected for its fairness and rigor, and it therefore comes

as no surprise that other government agencies have partnered with NEH to help them deliver

large-scale peer review for individual scholars. NEH has two strategic partnerships that further

extend the agency's mission to support individual research.

NEH/NSF: Dynamic Language Infrastructure–Documenting Endangered Languages

Fellowships

NEH collaborates with the NSF to fund documentation of the thousands of rapidly disappearing

languages all over the world. The Dynamic Language Infrastructure–Documenting Endangered

Languages Fellowships program provides awards to individual scholars in the field of linguistics,

linguistic anthropology, or sociolinguistics who seek to record and archive endangered languages

before they become extinct. Native American languages are an important cluster in this program;

one third of the 100 awards made to date have focused on Native American languages. Among

the endangered languages studied were Pomoan, spoken by the Pomo tribe in Northern

California; Tlingit, spoken in southeast Alaska; a Dilzhe'e variant of Western Apache; and

Wyandot, a Northern Iroquois language.

Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission: Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on

Japan

NEH administers the Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan program under

an interagency agreement with the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, which is the primary

funder. The program’s goals are to promote the study of Japan in the United States, to encourage

U.S.-Japanese scholarly exchange, and to support the next generation of Japan scholars in the

United States. Awards support individual scholars conducting research on modern Japanese

society and political economy, Japan's international relations, and U.S.-Japan relations. For

example, Dennis Frost of Kalamazoo College won an award to support his research into the

history of disability and sports in Japan. The resulting book shows how events such as the

Paralympics have affected disability-related policies and perceptions both in and beyond the

sports arena.

ADMINISTRATION

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Delta from

FY 2023

Administration

$35,000

$36,000

$42,000

$6,000

Note: Dollars are in thousands.

The NEH administrative budget supports staff salaries and benefits, telecommunication systems,

building rent and security, contractual services, equipment, supplies, and other support activities

that enable the agency to meet its goals of promoting advanced research, deeply informed teaching

in schools and colleges, lifelong learning, and the preservation of cultural collections.

NEH’s administrative budget includes several items that are not typically included in other federal

agencies’ overhead. The most prominent of these is the annual cost of evaluating grant applications

through the agency’s peer-review process. Annually, NEH receives more than 5,000 grant

applications and awards an average of almost 1,000 grants on average. The applications are

reviewed and evaluated by both NEH staff and experts outside of the agency. For example, in FY

2022, more than 1,100 scholars, teachers, museum curators, experts, and other professionals

convened to conduct 276 virtual panels as peer reviewers. Starting in calendar year 2023, NEH

raised the honorarium fee to $400 for peer reviewers.

NEH is requesting $42 million in administrative funds to support the agency’s program request of

$169 million. The agency’s main administrative cost is salaries and benefits, which NEH estimates

at $32.5 million in FY 2024.

Implementing the President’s Management Agenda

• Strengthening and Empowering the Federal Workforce: NEH continues to identify and

offer training opportunities to employees, supervisors, contractors, and managers to adapt,

work and supervise in a hybrid work environment. NEH also continues to update and

acquire technology that enables staff members to work efficiently from areas outside of the

District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia commuting area.

• Managing the Business of Government: NEH continues to offer hybrid work

arrangements to agency staff. These flexible work arrangements enable NEH to attract,

recruit, retain, and empower top talent to advance its DEIA goals, accomplish its mission,

and meet strategic initiatives. Specifically, flexible work arrangements allow NEH to hire a

more diverse workforce as potential staff are no longer limited to the District of Columbia-

Maryland-Virginia commuting area.

In response to the directive to strengthen federal hiring practices, NEH plans the following:

• Paid Internship Program: Since FY 2020, NEH has administered a successful virtual

Pathways Internship Program, generally for college students. Internships provide valuable

assistance to NEH staff in all offices. Additionally, interns provide staff members with the

opportunity to mentor future leaders in various humanities or administrative fields and offer

new perspectives on the agency’s operations, policies, practices, and plans. Internships also

increase NEH’s relationship with universities and colleges. NEH will continue to hire up to

24 interns per summer.

• NEH Hiring Processes: NEH will identify critical hiring needs; update its position

description library; and strengthen and simplify vacancy announcements to attract diverse,

qualified, and talented applicants. NEH continues to encourage supervisors to strengthen

structured interviews.

Responding to the federal government’s directive to improve personnel vetting, NEH plans the

following:

• Organizational Assessments: NEH continues to work with other small agencies to update

the organizational assessments that are utilized by job applicants who apply for various

positions. This streamlining allows the agency to attract more qualified individuals. In

response to Executive Order 13932, Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring

of Federal Job Candidates, NEH no longer relies on candidates’ self-certifications of their

stated skills and abilities when vacancy announcements are advertised. The agency

identified other assessment tools to certify applicants for further consideration, which began

in FY 2023. NEH continues to work directly with the Office of Personnel Management to

identify various assessment strategies to attract the most qualified candidates.

• Personnel Vetting Systems: NEH continues to comply with GSA USA Access system

updates as related to Personal Identity Verification badges for both agency staff and

contractors. The agency will also conduct timely background investigations on eligible staff

positions and contractors and report the findings to appropriate leadership.

Advancing Equity for Underserved Communities and Embedding DEIA into the NEH

Workforce

• NEH Equity Action Plan: In FY 2022, in response to Executive Order 13985, Advancing

Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal

Government, NEH released an ambitious Equity Action Plan to remove barriers to full and

equal participation in the agency’s programs and opportunities. In FY 2023, NEH

implemented its Equity Action Plan by (1) creating an Office of Data and Evaluation and

building to build a robust data collection system to analyze the effectiveness of NEH

programs and policies and determine whether, and to what extent, they advance equity and

support for underserved communities; (2) creating an Office of Outreach and refining and

developing plans to refine the agency’s branding to increase engagement with communities

and institutions that have been historically underserved by NEH, such as Tribal Nations,

veterans, HBCUs, HSIs, TCUs, and community colleges; and (3) exploring ways to

simplify the agency’s grant application processes and funding opportunity notices. In FY

2024, NEH will expand the Offices of Data and Evaluation; and Outreach; and Diversity,

Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) to continue to reach the goals set forth by the

Equity Action Plan.

• NEH DEIA Strategic Plan: In response to Executive Order 14035, Diversity, Equity,

Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce, NEH developed a DEIA Strategic

Plan that outlines steps to recruit and retain a workforce that draws from the full diversity of

the nation. In FY 2023, NEH appointed a Chief Diversity Officer and created an Office of

DEIA to (1) establish a whole-of-agency, data-driven DEIA program at NEH that enables

the agency to hire and promote the nation’s best talent and build a diverse and

representative workforce through an open and fair process consistent with merit systems

principles; (2) implement recruitment and hiring policies and practices at NEH that

strategically integrate DEIA goals, explore opportunities to achieve more equitable

outcomes, and actively work to mitigate the effects of systemic bias on underserved

communities; (3) increase professional development opportunities for NEH staff that create

an inclusive, engaged, and high-performing workforce; and (4) embed accessibility as a

core design component of NEH facilities, digital spaces, website services, and programs so

that all people, including people with disabilities, can fully and independently use them.

Evidence, Evaluation, and Capacity-Building to Advance Evidence-Based Policymaking

In FY 2023, NEH launched an Office of Data and Evaluation to implement rigorous evaluation

metrics and establish a baseline of the agency’s existing support for underserved communities.

This Office will (1) collect data about the organizations and individuals that apply to NEH, the

principal investigators who lead those grants, and the NEH peer reviewers who adjudicate them;

(2) perform studies in-house about the impact of NEH’s awards, particularly by analyzing closed-

out grants to see how they have positively impacted the field over time; (3) award grants and

contracts to outside organizations (e.g., researchers who are experts in diversity and equity) to

perform studies of NEH’s work; and (4) provide reliable data to senior NEH leadership to help

inform new grant programs, new forms of outreach, and NEH hiring practices.

Prioritizing Information Technology (IT) Modernization and Cybersecurity

NEH’s cybersecurity modernization is well underway with significant progress in implementing

guidance from CISA’s Zero-Trust Maturity Model. In FY 2022, NEH purchased laptops which

were provisioned and managed with Microsoft Endpoint Manager (formally Intune) to enhance

capabilities in the Devices pillar. Also, in FY 2022, the agency began work in the Identity pillar

with an NEH Identity Redesign Project. Funding in FY 2023 allowed NEH to advance the

Networks and Applications and Workloads pillars. To improve the agency’s networks, NEH is

implementing a project plan to fully migrate to a TIC 3.0 architecture. Within the Application and

Workloads pillar and consistent with using shared services for IT modernization, the NEH grants

management software will adopt Login.gov to improve security and user experience when

recipients and reviewers interact with NEH. NEH’s plans in FY 2024 include IT modernization for

federal cybersecurity by design, zero trust implementation, and strengthening the foundations of

our digitally enabled future human capital. Detailed information on these plans can be found in the

“Justification of Program Changes” on pages 11-12 of this document.

NEH Administration Budget Request by Object Classification

($ in thousands)

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

President’s

Budget

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs)

172

177

194

PERSONNEL COMPENSATION

19,671

21,491

24,380

BENEFITS

6,685

7,290

8,100

UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION

SUBTOTAL PERSONNEL

COMPENSATION

26,361

28,781

32,480

TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION

145

375

400

GSA RENT

3,082

3,162

3,410

COMMUNICATIONS AND UTILITIES

115

111

140

PRINTING

108

118

115

OTHER CONTRACTUAL SERVICES

4,854

6,113

4,875

PANELIST CONTRACTS

300

410

435

SUPPLIES

104

EQUIPMENT

390

GRANTS

SUBTOTAL NON-PERSONNEL

COMPENSATION

9,089

10,458

9,520

TOTAL

35,450

39,239

42,000

11.1 PERSONAL COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

PERSONAL SALARY AND BENEFITS

26,361

28,781

32,480

11.1–13.1 Personal Compensation and Benefits: Personal compensation includes salaries and

benefits for the following categories of employees: full-time permanent, part-time permanent,

temporary, base pay experts and consultants, and intermittent appointments (members of the

National Council on the Humanities). Benefits include NEH’s shared contributions toward

employees’ retirement, health, life insurance, and unemployment benefits.

NEH’s rigorous peer-review process requires a highly educated workforce that is knowledgeable

about humanities discipline content and the agency’s grant-making procedures. Most NEH

program staff hold a PhD or other advanced degree in the humanities. NEH’s administrative

professionals have expertise in budgeting, accounting, information resource management, legal

counsel, public affairs and communication, and administrative services.

FY 2022’s staffing level was 172 Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) and increased to 177 in FY 2023.

The agency expects FTEs will increase to 194 by the end of FY 2024. This staff increase

annualizes hires from FY 2023, expands the newly formed Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,

and Accessibility, supports NEH’s cybersecurity efforts, and adds program support for the

Note: FY 2021 and FY 2022 include use of carryover funding from prior years.

agency’s new grant programs. The Budget includes a 5.2% pay adjustment and an increase for the

agency’s contribution for regular retirement groups.

21.1 TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION OF

PERSONS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION

145

375

400

21.1 Travel & Transportation of Persons: Travel funds and expenses include site visits for

program oversight, grant-application workshops, outreach activities, and travel related to agency

training. Also included in this line item are the travel expenses for the members of the National

Council on the Humanities, who typically travel to Washington, D.C. at least three times each year

to discuss NEH policies, review applications, and advise the NEH Chair concerning funding of

specific projects.

As the agency moves to a post-pandemic posture, NEH has seen an increase in travel as the staff is

able to again attend conferences, site visits, and workshops. The agency is also expanding its

outreach programs to underserved communities that have been systematically deprived from

participating in opportunities.

23.1 RENTAL PAYMENTS TO GSA

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

GSA RENT

3,082

3,162

3,410

23.1 GSA Rent: NEH occupies space in the Constitution Center in Washington, D.C., a privately

owned building that is partially leased to the GSA. NEH’s rent charges are determined by an

Occupancy Agreement that the agency negotiates with GSA. The current Occupancy Agreement is

for the period of November 2020 through April 2024. NEH projects a rent increase of 7% in 2024.

23.3 COMMUNICATION, UTILITIES, AND

MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

COMMUNICATION AND UTILITIES

115

111

140

23.3 Communication, Utilities, and Miscellaneous Charges: NEH has upgraded to Microsoft Team

Telecommunication System (DC Net) to support the staff’s teleworking capacity. The

telecommunication system has replaced all call messaging units, desktop phones, and local call

services. The agency expects a slight increase in telecommunication costs due to inflation.

24.0 PRINTING AND REPRODUCTION

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

PRINTING

108

118

115

24.0 Printing and Reproduction: Each year, NEH prints HUMANITIES, an award-winning,

quarterly periodical; agency posters and program brochures; stationery; and program

announcements. The agency also supports the printing of Congressional outreach and National

Book Festival materials. The decrease in FY 2024 is due to a reduction in the costs of paper.

25.1 OTHER CONTRACTUAL SERVICES

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

OTHER CONTRACTUAL SERVICES

4,854

6,113

4,875

25.1 Other Contractual Services: NEH employs a variety of contractual services which include: (1)

support, maintenance, and improvement of information technology systems; (2) annual contract

and maintenance of the agency’s financial database; (3) employee training; (4) security personnel

costs at the Constitution Center; (5) contracts for temporary personnel assistance; (6) and contracts

with interagency fund transfers.

In FYs 2023 and 2024, NEH will transition its legacy agency-hosted system to a shared-services

provider, Treasury ARC. The costs of this transition are approximately $87,000 for engagement

and $1.575 million for migration, including environment build, system testing, data migration, and

contractual staff support in FY 2023. Recurring operations and maintenance costs, starting in FY

2024, will be $1.120 million.

25.9 PANELIST CONTACTS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

PANELISTS CONTRACTS

300

410

435

25.9 Panelist Contracts: Agency contracts have historically included funds to allow for travel

expenses, daily per diem, and honoraria for panelists each year. Panelists represent a diverse field

of disciplinary, institutional, and regional backgrounds selected through a rigorous recruitment

process. In FY 2023, the agency increased panelist honorarium payments from $250 to $400 to

compensate for the rate of inflation and to continue NEH’s ability to recruit high quality outside

reviewers of its grant applications. FY 2024 includes additional panel support for NEH’s requested

new grant programs.

26.0 SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

SUPPLIES AND MATERIAL

104

26.0 Supplies and Materials: The agency expects a decrease from FY 2023 in the cost of office

supplies. With more employees returning to the office, NEH will not be purchasing work from

home supplies. The agency will continue to keep employees safe from the spread of COVID-19

within the office space through the purchase of protective equipment, disinfectants, and masks.

31.0 EQUIPMENT

FY 2022

Enacted

FY 2023

Enacted

FY 2024

Request

EQUIPMENT

390

31.0 Equipment: IT modernization and cybersecurity are the key drivers of the agency’s need to

upgrade office equipment. To support sophisticated engineering and the integration of high-speed

networks, NEH will upgrade desktop monitors and communication services for office workspaces.

BUDGET ADDENDUM – NEH INSPECTOR GENERAL BUDGET

The budget for the operations of NEH’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is included within

the agency’s general administrative budget. In accordance with Section 6(f) of the Inspector

General Act of 1978, as amended by the IG Reform Act of 2008, NEH estimates an aggregate

budget for the OIG of $0.856 million, which will support all staff salaries and allow for full

administrative and legal support of this office. The NEH OIG budget includes:

 Staff salaries and benefits totaling $0.805 million to support a staff of 4 FTEs;

 A travel budget of $7,500, which will allow for audit and investigative support and

attendance at all appropriate IG conferences, workshops, and training seminars;

 Estimated information technology expenses of $5,000;

 A training budget of $5,000 to allow for staff certification as mandated by the IG Act and

government auditing standards;

 Independent legal services, currently provided by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax

and Administration via a Memorandum of Understanding on a reimbursable basis not to

exceed $20,000 during the fiscal year;

 Investigative services to be secured via a Memorandum of Understanding with another

Inspector General on a reimbursable basis not to exceed $10,000 during the fiscal year; and

 $3,409 in continued support from the OIG for the Council of Inspectors General on

Integrity and Efficiency.